Say Their Names.

The people massacred in Buffalo deserve names known by the rest of us.

Say their names. Celestine Chaney, Roberta Drury, Andre Mackniel, Katherine Massey, Margus Morrison, Heyward Patterson, Aaron Salter,  Ruth Whitfield, Gerri Talley, Pearly Young were murdered. The injured include Zaire Goodman, Jennifer Warrington, and Christopher Braden.

This racially motivated massacre in a shopping center in Buffalo last week is so huge and has so much bandwidth that I almost do not know what to say. My friends will tell you that this is rare. I can talk about anything and do.

But this, this is gigantic. I don’t know what to say but I must say something, otherwise I will be one of the millions of Americans who pretend it didn’t happen. It did happen. it does matter. An 18-year-old man, in body armor, drove more than 200 miles to find a place with a group of Black people, concentrated enough to do massive damage. It was not a shooting. It was not a mass murder. It was a massacre.

One man was picking up a cake for his three-year-old son’s birthday. One woman never shopped there but was dropped off because it was the closest shopping center to her church. One woman was a writer who wrote letters to papers about needless gun deaths. One woman helped with her brother’s leukemia treatments. One man was buying snacks for his disabled wife’s movie night. Each of the dead and injured has a story behind the name, behind even the picture. I encourage you to read their stories and know them as individuals, beloved people who did not deserve to die.

Read their stories here: What we know about the victims

No one deserves to die in a massacre, but even less do people deserve to die because of who they are, immutable characteristics they can’t change, should they even want to. They did nothing wrong. They did nothing. The only thing bigger than my anger is my grief. I feel grief for the loss of these beautiful, innocent souls. I feel grief and guilt because I have not been active enough in discouraging the ensoulment of white supremacy in my time. It is built in to our country’s history and culture, but I, we, are all complicit if we do not work to end it. But I know this…grief, guilt, anger, and fear are what breed this problem and what must be used as an impetus to stop it.

If you are a person of color directly impacted by the events in Buffalo, whether because this attack took place in your community or because it has activated grief, trauma, and terror from other experiences of white supremacist violence, there is help for you. Reach out to your loved ones and let them know how you are feeling and what you need. You are not alone. I am so sorry. I send you my love.

Please comment below. Tell me what you are feeling and thinking. Share a bit a community here. Share a bit of love.