Residents taking a stand against racist violence
An open letter to Connecticut communities:
We are women who call ourselves “Outraged Elders,” because we first came together two years ago in response to the police murder of George Floyd, a murder that launched a nationwide reckoning on attacks against Black lives. With Black leadership, millions marched for racial justice and an examination of systemic racism.
The recent military-style, racist assault in Buffalo, N.Y., May 14, 2022, by a white nationalist who murdered 10 people in a supermarket in a Black neighborhood, has not been the subject of as much visible community outrage.
And it is only the most recent example of white terrorism. Other nationalities of color have been targeted and murdered in mass shootings. People of Jewish faith have also been targeted. Eleven died in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. Fifty people died in a terrorist's mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., in 2016. All identity-based hatred is a scourge in our communities, and an attack on the historic struggle to make American democracy truly representative.
Mass shootings result from violent hatred combined with easy access to rapid-fire weapons. Those of us of “white” European origin must speak out against murderous acts done in the name of white supremacist and nationalist groups, and see them for what they are — not only terrorist but fascist. U.S. government security agencies have described some armed groups and white supremacists only as “terrorist,” as these groups expand and operate with relative impunity. Through social media they are able to recruit large numbers with hateful conspiracy theories and they effectively groom some men to be killers. These killers cannot be dismissed or excused as mentally ill.
It can be argued white supremacist movements are also “fascist” because large corporations — the social media and mainstream media outlets — are, in fact, funding and profiting from the messages of hate and violence. Extremist political leaders and groups further propagate these ideas in their campaigns and policy advocacy. A completely unregulated gun industry worth billions has tripled the number of guns produced in the last two decades.
The NAACP published a “Buffalo Response Plan and Policy Recommendations” which outlines the connections between corporations, public policy and the growth of armed hate groups and individuals. Government, law enforcement agencies and media companies should act to diminish the influence of white supremacist groups. Not only human lives are threatened and extinguished; the future of our representative democracy is at stake.
We draw your attention to the NAACP plan as a way to begin discussion in our communities and organizations about how to respond to the spread of white supremacist hate speech, conspiracy theories, and mass killings of people of based on their race, religion or gender identity.