Black residents in Buffalo are pushing for President Biden to call out white supremacy after the mass shooting that took place on Saturday, May 14th.
President Biden is scheduled to visit Buffalo to grieve with the families of the victims of the mass shooting.
According to reports, Joyce Beatty, Congressional Black Caucus Chair, and Marnetta Malcolm, an activist both shared that “thoughts and prayers weren’t enough to address this tragedy.
Malcolm said about the tragedy, “I want to speak on the truth. This is not going to not happen again, right? So the truth of the matter is this is a country’s problem. This is an American problem with them hating us.”
She continued, “Now you can’t stop at the grocery store while you’re Black. There’s a few things you can’t [do]. That’s the problem.”
We reported that the suspect, Payton Grendon pled not guilty to first-degree murder after killing ten people and injuring three more. It was also reported that he specifically targeted Black people by searching the demographics of the neighborhood.
Derek Middlebrooks also expressed his feelings about the shooting.”It makes me angry to the point where I want to put hands and feet on this kid and not stop until he’s not breathing, and it’s a shame to be thinking like that.”
He continued, “I don’t want to think like that, but I’m tired. I’m tired. I’m tired of people looking at us like we’re just nothing. That’s exactly what he did. He went and mowed them, people, down like they were nothing. To him, they weren’t.”
President Biden issued a statement to empathize with the victims’ families. In his statement, he described the shootings as a “racially motivated hate crime.”