Buffalo Massacre An Act of White Nationalist Political Violence By Political Research Associates It is past time to abandon the fiction of isolated acts of extremism. On Saturday, May 14, 2022, ten people were murdered and three more wounded by an 18-year-old White man—kitted out in the all-too-familiar uniform of paramilitary tactical gear and semiautomatic military-style rifle—who violently targeted a busy Tops Friendly Markets supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Eleven of his 13 victims are Black. The shooter selected the location because it had the highest concentration of Black people convenient to his residence. Buffalo is one of the most segregated cities in the country and the residential patterns that led to the Tops market being selected are themselves the result of decades of systemic White supremacy. The shooter, who live streamed his massacre before surrendering to police—left behind a 180-page screed closely modeled on that of the 2019 Christchurch shooter in which he embraces the central tenets of contemporary White nationalism. We grieve for the victims and share our most steadfast solidarity with the survivors, family, friends, and other members of the community who are left to overcome this catastrophe. PRA offers the following context for journalists, policymakers, and justice-minded people seeking to understand this horrific act and prevent recurrences. First, this mass shooting–far too common in our country–cannot be understood as just a crime or the act of a psychologically disturbed individual. It was a political act, fueled by White nationalist ideology that has important links to much broader movements of authoritarianism, racial nationalism, and misogyny. Second, the murderous anti-Blackness of the attacks used pseudo-scientific “race realism” justification that has developed within the margins of academia for decades. Third, the shooter’s focus on White birth rates and the use of “Great Replacement” disinformation in his statement has to be seen in the context of the recent proliferation of these ideas in the mainstream. It also points to a link between racial and ethnic nationalism and assaults on bodily autonomy seen in Christian Right anti-abortion rhetoric that is poised to be realized when the SCOTUS passes down its Jackson decision this summer. Finally, a strand of explicit and violent antisemitism permeates the statement, accusing Jews of assaults on White culture and the White race itself that amount to genocide–a kind of conspiracism that is replicated in QAnon and in only slightly coded ways in the wider MAGA movement. The attack should be understood as an act of political violence, motivated by White nationalism and misogyny, and intended to provide a model for others to follow: a model that takes Black people in particular, and people of color more generally, as enemies that threaten White existence, and that positions Jews as the secret orchestrators of threats to White people. The shooter’s “manifesto” is not about personal “hatred” so much as a political ideology that defines Blacks—and Jews—as a racial enemy. He justifies this with a profound anti-Blackness that is expressed at length, incorporating memes and infographics from an array of White nationalist sources to “prove” the danger Blacks pose to White people as a group (and as a supposed nation), reproducing the usual “race realism” (i.e. “scientific racism”) talking points about White superiority, genes and I.Q., and race and crime. The screed gives explicit voice to ideas that linger in a much wider swath of the population, if generally in more coded forms. Continue reading PRA's Statement Here. Political Research Associates | 1310 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02144 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!