The Buffalo Supermarket Shooting: Will Change Ever Come?
I have been witnessing the murder of innocent black civilians online since Trayvon Martin. At the time I naively thought that George Zimmerman would be convicted and hopefully die in jail. The case had been so public and everyone I had encountered online, on Twitter and Tumblr, was convinced this was an open and shut case. I was 16 and in biology class when I got the news Zimmerman had been acquitted. I turned to my classmate and showed them my phone, “Have you seen this shit? I can’t believe it.” I whispered. My classmate was uninterested and after skimming the article they handed me back my phone.
“So,” I huffed.
“So, what?” They replied.
“This fucker is gonna roam free after shooting a teenager! A teenager, one year older than us, who had Skittles in his pocket. How does this not make you want to scream?”
“Oh,” They began, “I guess I never thought about it that way. Honestly, I’m quite ignorant about things like this.”
At that moment I realized something.
Before the hashtags, slogans, and blacked-out Insta profiles, black people were still being slaughtered by white people who believed in the rhetoric of White Replacement Theory. I realized that nobody other than us really cared about us. They don’t care to find out about what life is like for us, because, simply, they don’t have to. For them, it is not a matter of life and death, but a messy political narrative they choose to not get involved in–black people chattering about a concept beyond their scope.
As the#BLM movement gained momentum in 2020 I had absolutely no hope for the movement to make any real political change, although white people believed this. The fact of the matter is that this discourse is not new at all. Since the first British merchants sailed to India or stole us from the coast of Africa they have been afraid of us. Afraid that one day we will have enough power and resources to overpower them, as we outnumber them by vast amounts. But the tea is… this is inevitable. White supremacy was doomed to fail from the beginning because it is based on the most stupendous lie ever told–that white people must keep their bloodlines, their neighborhoods, and lives free of People of Colour to ensure their safety.
This ideology is not only targeted at the black community as the rise of hate crimes against Asian people has exploded in the last few years as well. Where I live there has been an increase in anti-muslim hate crimes as hijabi women have been brutalized in broad daylight. So, explain this to me, if white people (and people who believe in white replacement theory) are so unsafe in their communities why are they always the aggressors? Why do we not hear about Muslim women killing white men in their pickup trucks? It is obvious, if you are not drinking the white supremacy Kool-Aid, that existing as a visible minority is much more dangerous than being white.
I wish people of color understood that to them we are all the same–a Lovecraftian monstrous other with ulterior motives, dark skin, and satanic customs. Right now this gunman targeted a black neighborhood, but tomorrow it could be yours. None of us can be free until all of us are free! There is no room for other people of color, like my classmate all those years ago, to be compliant or apathetic in the massacre of black people.
I think the thing that really gets me about this story is the fact that even from the time of my grandmother, who immigrated from Jamaica in the 50s, to now there hasn’t been any real societal change. People looked down on her and pitied her in private then praised her for being ‘well spoken’. I was told the exact same thing in an interview last week. People wanted her to work as their maid, but not to be seen at their dinner parties.
