Buffalo Massacre

Two years ago, a serene Saturday at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York, turned into a nightmare when an 18-year-old, clad in military attire and streaming his actions via helmet camera on Twitch, unleashed terror with a rifle.

The assailant, Payton Gendron, went on a rampage that claimed the lives of 10 individuals and left three others wounded. In a chilling display of racially motivated extremism, he targeted 11 Black and two White victims before ultimately surrendering to authorities. The livestream captured the horror in real-time, broadcasting the unfolding tragedy to a shocked audience.

The aftermath of the massacre reverberated far beyond Buffalo, highlighting the legacy of racial tensions, gun violence and the alarming rise of hate crimes plaguing the US.

The shooter had penned a racist manifesto online before his targeting of the majority-Black neighbourhood. The cover page featured the Sonnenrad, also known as The Black Sun. It’s a symbol that was popularised in Nazi Germany and continues to be used among White supremacists. The manifesto included reference to a popular White supremacist theory known as The Great Replacement, which argues that non-European people will soon outnumber the European population in the West, and must therefore have their numbers reduced through fear and fatality.

The manifesto espoused a certain Pan-European ideology, expressing solidarity with other European countries, stating that while the United States is home, the United States was also just “a finger on the hand of the body of Europe.”

In the aftermath, African-Americans mourned the tragedy, while Pan-Africanist organisations across the country reiterated the call for urgent principled and tactical unity among African people across the world. Many argued that only a strong and united homeland of Africa will end the brutal violence that Afro-descendant people face today. Do you agree?