So — Let’s Talk About The Shooting In Buffalo

On 5/14/2022, a man by the name of Payton S. Gendron shot thirteen people and killed ten — eleven of the people he shot were black. Gendron also did this in a majority black area, and his manifesto contained various racist statements — including references to the idea that white people in the United States were being replaced by minorities. (The word “replace” appears seventy six times in his one hundred eighty page manifesto.)

His manifesto contains many other passages that make it clear this shooting is racially motivated. For example, while talking about why he committed the massacre where he did, he wrote the following:

(REDACTED) has the highest black population percentage (zip code *****) and isn’t that far away. Plus NY has heavy gun laws so it would ease me if I knew that any legally armed civilian was limited to 10 round magazines or cucked firearms.

His manifesto goes on to say that, because these people are minorities living on what he believes to be the country of white people, they are not innocent by definition, they are aggressors. He even directly says that he does not hate black people, but he does hate the fact that black people are living in a country that he feels should be for whites. Here is a section of his manifesto where he responds to the question “Did, or do you personally hate blacks?”:

A black man or woman living in their homelands? No. A black man or woman choosing to invade our lands, live on our soil, live on government support and attack and replace our people? Yes, I dislike them.

His separatist beliefs even extent to those he hates the most — those being the Jews. Here is another quote from the same question and answer part of his manifesto where he responds to the question “Are you an anti-semite?”:

YES!! I wish all JEWS to HELL! Go back to hell where you came from DEMON! But in reality, a Jew confined to Judea where he can’t spread his people or beliefs is of no concern to me. It’s important to note that with proper connection to the internet, that is impossible.

He goes on to make it clear that he was primarily inspired by other white supremacist, responding to the question of “Is there a particular person that radicalized you the most?” by saying: