Yesterday during the House Oversight Committee hearing on gun violence, Zeneta Everhart – mother of Zaire Goodman, a survivor of the Tops Grocery Store mass shooting in Buffalo, New York – gave a powerful testimony.
Please read her transcribed testimony below, and if you’re able to, please chip in to the Buffalo 5/14 Survivors Fund and the Uvalde Victims Fund.
One hundred percent of the contributions donated to these funds will go directly to families and survivors.
Testimony from Zeneta Everhart | June 8, 2022
Zaire Mysaun Goodman, my son, or as I like to call him, “The Kid,” was shot and injured by a domestic terrorist on Saturday, May 14, 2022 at the Tops grocery store where he was an employee in a historically Black community on Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo, New York.
Zaire “The Kid” is now a 21-year-old man. He’s pure joy. He’s everything that is good in this world. And as I sit here before you today, I can hear my son telling me to stop being “extra” and get to the point.
I was going to tell you all a bunch of fluffy, funny stories about Zaire, but I have a message, so I’ll get to the point.
As Director of Diversity and Inclusion with New York State Senator Tim Kennedy’s office, stories of gun violence and racism are all too familiar, but now these stories are Zaire’s stories. These problems literally knocked on my front door. These are issues that as a country we do not like to openly discuss.
Domestic terrorism exists in this country for three reasons. America is inherently violent. This is who we are as a nation. The very existence of this country was founded on violence, hate, and racism with the near annihilation of my native brothers and sisters.
My ancestors brought to America through the slave trade were the first currency of America. Let me say that again for the people in the back.
My ancestors, the first currency of America, were stripped of their heritage and culture, separated from their families, bargained for on auction blocks, sold, being raped and lynched.
Yet, I continuously hear after every mass shooting that this is not who we are as Americans and as a nation. Hear me clearly. This is exactly who we are.
Education:
Majority of what I have learned about African American history I did not learn until I went to college and I had to choose those classes. Why is that? Why is African American history not a part of American history?
African Americans built this country from the ground up. My ancestors’ blood is embedded in the soil. We have to change the curriculum in schools across the country so that we may adequately educate our children. Reading about history is crucial to the future of this country. Learning about other cultures, ethnicities, and religions in schools should not be something that is up for debate.
We cannot continue to whitewash education, creating generations of children to believe that one race of people are better than the other. Our differences should make us curious, not angry.
At the end of the day, I bleed, you bleed, we are all human.
That awful day that will now be a part of the history books (hopefully). Let us not forget to add that horrible day to the curriculum that we teach our children.
Guns:
The 18-year-old terrorist who stormed into my community armed with an AR-15, killing 10 people and injuring three others received a shotgun from his parents for his 16th birthday. For Zaire’s 16th birthday, I bought him a few video games, some headphones, a pizza, and a cake. We are not the same.
How and why? And what in the world is wrong with this country? Children should not be armed with weapons. Parents who provide their children with guns should be held accountable. Lawmakers who continuously allow these mass shootings to continue by not passing stricter gun laws should be voted out.
To the lawmakers who feel that we do not need stricter gun laws, let me paint a picture for you: My son Zaire has a hole in the right side of his neck, two on his back, and another on his left leg caused by an exploding bullet from an AR-15.
As I clean his wounds, I can feel pieces of that bullet in his back. Shrapnel will be left inside of his body for the rest of his life. Now, I want you to picture that exact scenario for one of your children. This should not be your story or mine.
As an elected official, it is your duty to draft legislation that protects Zaire and all of the children and citizens in this country. Common sense gun laws are not about your personal feelings or beliefs. You are elected because you have been chosen and are trusted to protect us. But let me say to you here today, I do not feel protected.
No citizen needs an AR-15. These weapons are designed to do the most harm in the least amount of time. And on Saturday, May 14 it took a domestic terrorist just two minutes to shoot and kill 10 people and injure three others.
If after hearing from me and the other people testifying here today does not move you to act on gun laws, I invite you to my home to help me to clean Zaire's wounds so that you may see up close the damage that has been caused to my son and to my community.
To the families of Ruth Whitfield, Pearl Young, Katherine Massey, Heyward Patterson, Celestine Chaney, Geraldine Talley, Aaron Salter, Andre Mackniel, Margus Morrison, and Roberta Drury – I promise that their deaths will not be in vain.
Zaire and I promise to use our voice to lift their names, and we will carry their spirit with us as we embark on this journey to create change. I know that their collective souls watched out for Zaire that day and I am eternally grateful to them for that.
To the East Side of Buffalo, I love you. I’m speaking directly to my people, to my hood. From Bailey to Broadway to Kensington to Fillmore, to Delavan to Jefferson and every street in between, just like the potholes that we wanted filled in (yes, I keep it real), together we will continue to fill those streets with love no matter what people say about the East Side of Buffalo. We will not be broken.
I was born there, raised there. I raised my son there, I still live there, and I do the majority of my professional work on the East Side of Buffalo.
I vow to you today that everywhere I go I will make sure that the people hear the real stories of our people. For too long, our community has been neglected and starved of the resources that we so greatly need. I promise that I will not stop pushing for more resources to be funneled into the East Side of Buffalo. Each and every person that lives within that community, we are family. Not a perfect community, but I know that we are love.
To the greater Buffalo area, to everyone from around the country and the world who have reached out and loved on us, on behalf of Zaire, Zaire’s father Damien Goodman, my mother, my father, my sisters, my brothers, and myself, we thank you.
We thank you for all of your thoughts and your prayers. Thank you for all of the love and support you have shown us during this difficult time.
But I also say to you today, with a heart full from the outpouring of love that you all so freely gave us, your thoughts and prayers are not enough. We need you to stand with us in the days, weeks, months and years to come, and be ready to go to work and help us to create the change that this country so desperately needs.
I will end with a quote from Charles Blow in his book, The Devil We Know.
‘Race as we have come to understand it, is a fiction, but racism as we have come to live it, is a fact. The point here is not to impose a new racial hierarchy, but to remove an existing one. After centuries of waiting for white majorities to overturn white supremacy, it is to me, that it has fallen to Black people to do it themselves.’
And I stand at the ready.
Zaire, this is for you, kid. Happy birthday.
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