Grieving the Victims of the Buffalo Shooting
Last night I went to the grocery store. I came home after hearing the news of the Buffalo shooting. Folks went to their grocery store in their neighborhood. A White supremacist spent months targeting their predominantly Black neighborhood and killed 10 people. The details of this massacre are haunting—to know that this man was plotting, that he was on the authorities’ radar, that the police were called and dismissed callers’ cries for help, that the agents who showed up peacefully and non-violently arrested him after he slaughtered innocent community members. The lack of protection for Black bodies and the lack of consequence and accountability for White supremacists in this country is so deeply troubling.
So last night I went to the grocery store, and today I grieve.
I am grieving for the ways this country fails to protect our brothers and sisters and siblings in the Black community.
I am grieving for the ways local, state, and federal governments have failed to take White supremacy seriously.
I am grieving for the family members of the victims of the shooting.
I am grieving all the lives that should still be living.
I am grieving for the children who lost their mothers or fathers.
And I am grieving for those who can’t simply go to the grocery store.
In this lament, I am reminded of a Psalm that guides me to find God in the suffering. It is a Psalm I have come back to time and time again as I mourn acts of terror. It grounds me and reminds me of James Cone’s profound theology: “God takes a side, and that side is always with the oppressed.”
“You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.”Psalm 10:17-18 (NRSV)
This week, may we grieve together. Take time today to read and say their names. Think about the ways our brothers and sisters and siblings in the Black community are hurting and living in fear.
Roberta A. Drury of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 32
Margus D. Morrison of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 52
Andre Mackneil of Auburn, N.Y. — age 53
Aaron Salter of Lockport, N.Y. — age 55
Geraldine Talley of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 62
Celestine Chaney of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 65
Heyward Patterson of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 67
Katherine Massey of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 72
Pearl Young of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 77
Ruth Whitfield of Buffalo, N.Y. — age 86
God, love these 10 children of yours. Be ever close to all who grieve and mourn, who are scared and angry.
