State of Affairs

I am very familiar with Buffalo, New York. I knew that Tops grocery store that was the scene of a mass shooting this last weekend. I would go to get basic groceries like bread, sandwich meat, and sometimes spirits.

I laughed at that Tops. There was one time I went to grab a bite for dinner. While I was looking around, I came across an aisle that had bread on the left side and frozen good on the right. I made my way further down the aisle and before hitting the halfway mark, bread changed to haircare products. It was such a strange place to put them, a good friend of mine and I laughed about it for a good hour. I had fun at that Tops.

I knew that moving to Buffalo would be drastically different than anything I was ever used to. I’m a small-town boy from Grants, I’ve been to Los Angeles, I’ve been to New York City, but I had never lived in a big city. Folks from NYC might scoff that Buffalo is a big city, but it was such a huge divergence from the rural life I’ve always lived.

I was struck by a great culture shock. I tried all manners of different food. I celebrated Dominican Independence Day with traditional Dominican foods. I played trivia at locally owned bars. I played soccer with people of all races and traditions. I lived on the eighth floor and was able to watch baseball games from my dorm room.

I love Buffalo.

One of my really good friends in Buffalo was Muslim and Black. He was awesome. Buffalo has a high concentration of Black people, and while that shouldn’t have to be said, some people look at the color of our skin as a barrier. It is not. We are all humans, regardless of our skin color; we are all entitled to the same right to safety and life.

After class, a group of us would get together and we would travel across Buffalo, often accidentally wandering into other cities in Western New York and having a blast the whole time. It was peaceful and fun. Buffalo is a beautiful city; Niagara Falls is not far and is really incredible. During the COVID lockdown, I even attended a showing of “A Streetcar Named Desire” in the city of Niagara – it’s part of the Buffalo megalopolis and it is a great city.

When I heard that a mass shooting was happening in Buffalo, I was worried – when I heard it was at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue, I panicked. I messaged all of my friends to see if they were okay. I jumped on Snapchat right away and went to see if anyone had shared a story from Tops. Fortunately, none of my friends were at that Tops, and I was relieved, but my heart was still crushed.

This shooting was not just some random act. This shooting was calculated, deliberate. This shooting specifically targeted the Black community for no reason other than the color of their skin. This shooting was encouraged by a slew of conspiracy theories that have been peddled by white supremacists. This shooting should not have happened. This shooting cannot be allowed to happen again.

But we run into a problem when we have mass shootings that occur. For some reason, after gun violence, both sides of the political spectrum turn straight to arguing over firearms and gun control. Guns are not the issue here, and frankly they never were. Guns are a tool, you wouldn’t ban a screwdriver just because someone gets stabbed by one. You don’t hear calls to ban knives. No, there are two major factors that played into this shooting: Hate and mental illness.

Let’s start with the easier one: Mental illness. There simply are not enough resources available to care for those with mental illness. Some people only need a small amount of help; some people need 24/7 care. We don’t have the professionals available for this and it’s far beyond time that our nation finds a way to address this mental health crisis that puts an already vulnerable population of people at risk when exposed to baseless conspiracies theories. If you don’t understand, think back to 2012 “Dark Knight Rises” shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

Hate. This is not an easy subject to tackle. What drives racism? I mean, why hate a person just because of the color of their skin? We’re all human beings and the Children of God, we have no reason to hate each other. Sure, everyone is entitled to their freedom of speech, its why I don’t oppose the person flying “F*** Joe Biden” flags and I don’t scream when I see pro-abortion stickers. I only flinch when I see people failing to follow the law, and when they fail to have human decency.

It’s actually pretty hard to do the wrong thing. It takes a significant amount of effort to hate someone. The Buffalo shooter took time to plan out his assault on basic humanity. He chose that Tops because he knew it was frequented by the Black community. May God have mercy on the shooter’s soul; May the justice system see the shooter removed from society and placed somewhere he can never violate peace again.