The 18-year-old white supremacist who traveled to Buffalo to shoot Black shoppers at the local supermarket didn’t only target the 10 Black people whom he killed. His hate-filled manifesto made clear that he aimed to target all Black people in the U.S. — and also mass organizing for racial justice.
“Black communities and Black families must once again grieve the loss of loved ones — mothers, fathers, partners, siblings, friends — at the hands of white supremacy and racialized violence,” Radical organizer and activist Alicia Garza, cofounder of Black Lives Matter and Principal of Black Futures Lab, told TruthoutIn the aftermath of the attack. “I am heartbroken and my heart extends to every family who lost a loved one in this weekend’s senseless violence.”
Garza added: “The shooter wrote a manifesto, and my name was included in it. This is the second such incident in two years. The first time, I was targeted along with several others in a plot to cause violence and destruction.”
According to the New York Times, the manifesto published by the mass shooter, Payton S. Gendron, stated that he had decided to target east Buffalo “because it held the largest percentage of Black residents near his home in the state’s Southern Tier, a predominately white region that borders Pennsylvania.” The killer’s manifesto praised the white supremacist who killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015 and also praised the white supremacist shooter who killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019.
There are renewed calls for mass organizing in the country following the attack. Garza also calls for swift action to stop the spread of racial terror, and to encourage more participation in ongoing mass organizing efforts in America to counter the growing support for white supremacists.
Garza stresses that in order to combat the energised forces of white supremacy within the U.S. and simultaneously confront other forms of inequality and poverty, as well as climate crisis, climate injustice, it will be necessary to build broad-based social movements with power to significantly alter the capitalist system and the strategic vision to create a new socioeconomic order. These are not easy tasks. However, they are more important now than ever as global neoliberalism has intensified social and economic contradictions and the climate crisis threatens organized human life.
In the following interview Garza explains why racism still plays such a crucial role in our society. He also explains how to build independent Black political power which is the mission Black Futures Lab. And what to do in the face attacks like the white supremacist shooting at Buffalo.
C.J. Polychroniou: What words might you like to use in this moment as people are reeling from the horrific news of the anti-Black mass killing in Buffalo?
Alicia Garza: White nationalist violence is escalating — and the leadership of this country refuses to do anything significant about it. The ex-president, his supporters, as well as like-minded politicians, have been using a bullhorn to encourage white nationalists, white supremacists, and vigilantes for the past six years. They have gained political capital by stoking the fears of people who fear demographic change, and given political and moral cover to those who respond to these changes — and to their fear of and anxiety about this country’s undeniable future — with violence. This is not an uncommon practice. We are all well aware of the backlash that can occur when Black communities exert their power. It has been racialized terror, racialized violence and the response has been used with purpose.
The president is touring the country encouraging states and countries to spend COVID dollars expanding police forces. But white supremacists continue to wreak havoc in our government, and in our daily lives. White supremacists can feel empowered when they see that there aren’t significant consequences for what they do and when they realize they have allies and sympathizers within our government. Which political party will actually take action to save lives and save the country? We don’t need any more empty words, statements, or symbolic gestures. We deserve real change and action.
Companies like Wikipedia or Facebook are complacent as they provide information that allows white nationists to perpetrate racial terror. It was possible to obtain sensitive information about me and my family through the existence of a profile that I did not create. Despite our safety being compromised, Wikipedia continues to refuse to do anything about it, ostensibly in the name of free speech and protecting “user generated content.” But what happens when those users are white supremacists? I am not the only one Wikipedia will not protect — journalists and other activists are experiencing these same challenges on their site. They are just one site that allows and condones the invasion of our privacy, leaving us vulnerable to attacks from those who want to harm us for the work we do.
We will continue to witness racial terror proliferate and more innocent lives will be taken if we don’t take swift and decisive action.
Over two decades, you have been an activist and organizer for civil rights. You are co-creator of Black Lives Matter and principal at Black Futures Lab. Would you be willing to share your thoughts about how racism is still a fundamental feature of American society??
Racism is still a fundamental feature of American society. It is crucial in the distribution of power. Racism is a key feature of American society. It helps to determine who has the power to make and change the rules. Racism provides the justifications for why some people have and some people don’t, why some people live longer than others, have roofs over their heads and jobs, why some people can be doing really well while others are really struggling. Racism keeps us all from fighting back together against these rigged laws, since racism helps to conceal that the rules are rigged.
Tell us more about Black Futures Lab. What is the origin story of Black Futures Lab, and what are its primary goals and ultimate goals?
The Black Futures Lab is dedicated to making Black communities more powerful in politics and thereby empowering us in every aspect of our lives. We aim to empower Black communities with the tools they need to reverse the unfair rules against them and to replace the rigged rules with new rules that will move us all forward, together.
I started the Black Futures Lab, and another political organization, the Black to the Future Action Fund, to build independent Black political power — that means to put Black communities in a position to make the rules and change the rules, and to be a part of deciding who gets what, when, and why. The Black Futures Lab has a few strategies we use to build Black power. We collect recent and relevant data about who our communities are and what we want from our government — the Black Census Project is a part of that work.
With the Black Census Project, we are working to collect 200,000 responses from Black communities across the nation, to learn more about what we’re experiencing every day, and what we want to see done about it. We are involved in legislative advocacy and policy work. This involves using the information we have gathered from our research to help shape policy that will improve the lives of Black communities. We train communities in writing, winning and implementing new rules that will improve our lives in cities or states. We create good public policy and work hard to get it passed to encourage and activate Black communities to vote. We also invest in our communities to give them the tools they need to be strong. We offer resources that enable people to organize that they may not otherwise have.
Through our first Black Census Project, we provided Black organizations with resources to hire organizers, and the technology they needed to reach as many people as possible; we’re doing the same with this year’s Black Census Project. This year, we’ll be moving about $2 million to Black organizing work, to Black-led organizations across the country.
According to Black respondents who participated in a recent Black Census, the problem of low wages was deemed the most pressing. What strategies do you think are the best for increasing wages and improving labor standards in people of color?
Respondents to the Black Census favored increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour to address the problem that low wages are not sufficient to support a family. They also supported increasing government participation in housing and health care. Respondents want to see a monthly $2,000 check to extend the COVID-19 stimulus bill until the pandemic is over, according to the latest Temperature Check polls by the Black to Future Action Fund. Respondents indicate that they would use that stimulus check for matters of survival — rent/mortgage, utilities, healthcare. We also see a desire for union strengthening and regulation of workplaces and corporations to address labor standards.
People from poverty and Black communities are at greater risk of environmental and health problems. Given the fact that environmental racism is very prevalent in the U.S., how do you see Black Futures Lab playing a role in the fight against it and in the larger task of building a global climate movement.
Environmental racism is particularly prevalent in Black communities. We found in our Temperature Check Polls that Black people understood the environment to be about more than weather — it was also about having access to the things we need to live well. One third of our respondents stated that they were concerned about the lack of clean drinking water, while 31 percent stated that access to healthy food was their main concern in relation to environmental racism. Our role is to highlight the impact of Black communities and to ensure that solutions are found in the public policy we create and implement in cities across the country.
In the 1960s and 70s, social movements all over the world were focused on creating a common identity for people from diverse communities. This was based on a shared worldview, a shared strategy and a shared mission in the pursuit of justice. I may be wrong, but I don’t see this being the case with many of today’s social movements, which seem to concentrate overwhelmingly on single issues and are indeed deprived of an overarching agenda for transforming our world. What are your thoughts on this subject? Is it possible to create a broad and inclusive movement in the political and social economic and cultural landscapes of the 21st Century that challenges the existing socioeconomic system while envisioning a future that works well for all?
I can completely understand why it feels like our movements are siloed — and I do think that there are and have been many efforts at creating and advancing an overarching agenda to change the world. Our work starts to reflect the challenges that we face funding it, as a lot of our work happens through nonprofit organizations. It is easy to divide philanthropy into single issues. If we are dependent on philanthropy, it means that we will likely be organized in the same way. We must also continue rebuilding our infrastructure to deal with the attacks that we face from the state and from within our own ranks. Our state of being is not linear. History is not linear. There are seeds being planted, from the Movement for Black Lives, to Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. These seeds aim to unite our movements and make them stronger and more cohesive. That is what gives me hope.
