In one of this year’s deadliest mass shootings, a white supremacist opened fire Saturday on a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 and wounding three others. Eleven of the victims were Black. The suspect, aged 18, posted racist ideas online before streaming his attack live-streamed. We go to Buffalo to speak with India Walton, longtime community activist and former mayoral candidate, about the city’s systemic racism and segregation, which has led to “food apartheid.” Black residents in east Buffalo have just one grocery store, which the shooter targeted. “This is more than half a century of oppression, of systemic racism, and now is the time to renew the call for reparations,” Walton says.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Buffalo, New York residents held vigils Sunday to remember the 10 people who were killed Saturday when a white supremacist dressed in body armor and wielding an assault rifle opened fire at a supermarket located in a predominantly Black neighborhood. 11 of the 13 victims, including shoppers and employees at the store, were Black. Grady Lewis, a Buffalo resident witnessed the shooting.
GRADY LEWIS: I was standing across the street when I heard a shot. And I knew it wasn’t a firecracker. I looked up and saw nothing but smoke and a man shooting across the parking lot. Then I saw the security guard running inside the store. When he got inside, the other man bent down and started shooting inside the store. I heard at least 20 shots from the store. And I didn’t have a phone on me, so I was just yelling and screaming for people to call the police. I turned around and saw a woman on the ground. I saw a woman lying on the ground. I saw a man standing on the ground. I see another woman standing behind the gate.
AMY GOODMAN: Police have declared the attack a domestic terrorist attack. They’ve arrested an 18-year-old suspect who reportedly live-streamed the massacre on the video streaming service Twitch. Although the video was taken down by the site within minutes, it continues to circulate online among white supremacists. The suspect left behind a racist manifesto, which included a plan to attack a predominantly Black neighborhood. Investigators claim he had done extensive research on the area and driven about 200 miles to Conklin, New York. He arrived at his destination a day ahead of schedule to conduct reconnaissance. The manifesto heavily reprinted a screed left behind in 2019 by white supremacist Tucker Carlson. He killed 51 people at Christchurch’s two mosques. The manifesto refers to the “Great Replacement,” a racist conspiracy theory promoted by far-right media figures like Tucker Carlson of Fox News and embraced by some Republicans, including New York Congressmember Elise Stefanik.
Prosecutors claim that the shooter purchased the Bushmaster XM-15 Semiautomatic rifle used during the assault legally from a licensed dealer in his hometown. He passed a background screening. That’s despite the fact that the suspect previously threatened a mass shooting at his high school the year before. He modified the rifle to use high capacity magazines, which are prohibited in New York.
As Buffalo mourned, President Biden spoke Sunday from the White House.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We’re still gathering the facts, but already the Justice Department has stated publicly that it is investigating the matter as a hate crime, racially motivated act of white supremacy and violent extremism. We must all work together to eradicate hate from America’s soul. Although our hearts are heavy, we must not lose heart.
AMY GOODMAN: The White House says President Biden will visit Buffalo Tuesday to meet with victims’ families. Journalist Madison Carter’s tweet eulogizing one of the victims, Pearly Young, went viral. Carter wrote, quote, “Pearly Young, 77, was killed today in #Buffalo shopping for groceries. She ran a pantry that fed Central Park residents every Saturday for 25 years. Every. Saturday. She loved singing, dancing, & being with family. She was a mother, grandma, & missionary. Gone too soon.” The other named victims are former Buffalo Police Lieutenant Aaron Salter, who was an off-duty guard; also killed were Ruth Whitfield, Katherine “Kat” Massey, Heyward Patterson, Celestine Chaney, Roberta Drury, Geraldine Talley, Andre MacNeil and Marcus Morrison.
We now go to Buffalo, New York, where we’re joined by India Walton, former Buffalo mayoral candidate, longtime community activist, now a senior adviser for [special]RootsAction has a senior strategic planner and projects for the Working Families Party
India, welcome back Democracy Now! Right now you’re just a few blocks from the grocery store where the shooting took place. Can you describe your response over the weekend and what’s happening in your community?
INDIA WALTON: There are many heavy hearts in Buffalo right at the moment. Amy, more details are still being revealed. And as a matter of fact, I didn’t know that Kat Massey was one of the victims. I began my organizing career in the Fruit Belt. Kat was a pillar to the community, and a long-standing supporter and friend of mine and the work I did. A woman who wrote a $10 check each month to support the community land trust, Kat was an inspiration. These are the people we lost in this terrible and tragic incident.
AMY GOODMAN: First of all, my condolences on this horror that has befallen your community, this act of domestic terrorism that has taken so many, including the mother — the oldest victim is the mother — right? — of the retired fire commissioner.
INDIA WALTON: Yes. There is more to the story. The former fire commissioner’s mother was in that grocery store because it is the only place for Black folks to shop on this side of town, right? This isn’t a question of one person who is a white supremacist. It’s a conversation that needs to be had, and a policy that needs to be implemented to reverse the systemic harms created by a structure of white superiority that has not only permeated America but also has trickled down to cities such as Buffalo. We know that 80% people on the East Side of Buffalo are Black, and they only have one place to shop. And now they have zero places to shop, because we don’t know when our grocery store is going to open back up on the East Side.
AMY GOODMAN: This is a crucial point, Tops grocery store. I mean, before it was brought into the community — it’s in other parts of Buffalo, but it wasn’t here — you had a food desert here. And right now, because it’s closed, you have people who are desperately trying to get the services that this store provided, like prescription drugs delivered to them, food that’s refrigerated; dealing with a community that lived in a food desert, now goes back to that once again, but, most importantly, the issue of structural racism that you’re talking about, India.
INDIA WALTON: Exactly. We have dubbed it “food apartheid,” because it is a policy decision. Deserts are naturally occurring, and the fact that there is no food on the East Side of Buffalo and there’s not the availability of these basic services is a policy choice. People have chosen to not provide services in this area. And for a long time, we’ve been told that this Tops on Jefferson, we are lucky to have it, because no one else wants to come into the neighborhood because they’re afraid of retail theft or many other reasons why we have been led to believe that Black folks don’t deserve the same things that other communities do.
AMY GOODMAN: You talk about segregation through design. This is how you describe your neighborhood. Can you explain the way that the Kensington Expressway divides African American society?
INDIA WALTON: Absolutely. There is a policy choice. The Kensington Expressway was constructed to quickly move people from the first-ring suburbs into Buffalo’s airport. And as a matter of fact, there was an intentional choice to blast through very hard multiple levels of rock to sink the expressway so that folks coming in and out didn’t have to see the blight that resulted in the surrounding communities, right? So, it’s to get in and out as quickly as possible. It’s had devastating environmental impacts, health impacts. We know that residents who live along the Kensington Expressway have higher rates for asthma, heart disease, as well as other preventable illnesses. Again, as aggressive as policy may be to cause harm, we must make sure that equal and greater effort is put into undoing it. And a billion dollars has recently been allocated to cover a portion, but we also know that that’s not a real solution, right? It should be filled out, it should end and it should return to the parkway it was once.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want President Biden to hear tomorrow? What would you like to say to the country about this act domestic terrorism? This young white man, who describes himself as a white supremacist, as a fascist, puts out this 180-page screed, much of it taken from the Christchurch massacre screed that talks about the “Great Replacement” theory and more. He had actually gone there to the Tops to conduct reconnaissance. He wanted to kill more people. State troopers arrested him last year after his school called the police. They were so worried about him. We are reminded of Dylann Roof’s story, where he traveled hours to visit a site that contained African Americans whom he could murder. It was the South Carolina church. It was Tops in this case.
INDIA WALTON: We are now at another moment of national reckoning. This is not an isolated event. This is more that half a century worth of oppression, systemic racism. It is time to renew the call to reparations. We need bold, reparative actions at the forefront all of these conversations. Prayers and thoughts alone are not enough. We live in communities that have been “redlined”, people intentionally excluded from our economic system, people who were preyed upon, taken from. And if we’re going to begin to heal as a country and really beat back what is systemic racism that causes these extremist ideas in homegrown terrorists — our people have been terrorized for generations in this country. Our existence in this country is a result of terror. And if we’re not having conversations about reparations, if we’re not having conversations about actively undoing the harm that has been caused by redlining, by intentionally leaving Black people out of economic and social upward mobility, then it’s a nonstarter for people like me who do this work, who care for our communities.
You know, we’re tired. I’m tired. This dude was allowed to go into our grocery store and shoot up a bunch of grannies and aunties — right? — and children. A 8-year-old girl ran for her life, hiding in a freezer. And, you know, I’m tired of prayers. I don’t want that. We need resources. We need money. We need money to buy our own groceries. We must be able, in our own communities, to make decisions and take responsibility for our safety.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank India Walton for being with us. She was a former Buffalo mayoral candidate and long-time community activist. She is now a senior adviser for special projects at Working Families Party, and also works with RootsAction.
Next up, we’ll be joined by professor Ibram X. Kendi, his new piece for The Atlantic headlined “The Danger More Republicans Should Be Talking About: White-supremacist ideology is harmful to all, especially the naive and defenseless minds of youth.” Stay with us.
