WHITE AMERIKKKA: BUFFALO

 WHITE AMERIKKKA: BUFFALO

This article comes almost unexpectedly, but it is absolutely necessary as a preamble to what I wanted to talk about these days. I recently had a heated discussion with some crazy Caucasian Americans, fervent advocates of equal rights between whites and blacks, totally naive (I still have to understand whether rationally or not) about the topic of "systematic racism". My new page cited the reaction to a simple business choice made by an African American as an example. I was composing my new blog when I read the news of the recent Buffalo massacre. My fingers have automatically eliminated those few words that had begun to paint my blank sheet, because this massacre, for many and obvious reasons, embodies the essence of a large part of the United States of Amerikkka which still, after centuries of discrimination, has remained unchanged. I do not want to report what happened, I am simply determined to list the reasons why not only the attacker is a pathetic racist, but also the American mainstream and law enforcement. I would like to start with the fact that, apart from the boy's age (yes, a shaven, eighteen-year-old mythomaniac named Payton Gendron) his credentials were not made public immediately. Indeed, there are still articles that make no mention of it (here I would like to remember how, instead, first and last names, origin and family status are spelled out on television when a black person only steals). It seems that the teenager was residing more than 300 km from Buffalo, that he inspected the massacre neighborhood, whose inhabitants are mainly African Americans, since the beginning of May and that he showed up on the day of the shooting with a bulletproof vest and assault rifle. Let's think about all this but pretending that the aforementioned boy was black: well, the first day after setting foot in a white neighborhood he would have been automatically reported to the police, who would have, at least, taken him to the police station for an interrogation; or it would have been shot on sight by some maniac. This should make us reflect on the reality of coexistence between races in America. Also, I don't understand that a teenager armed to the teeth is not stopped by anyone, not by security, or by the police. So we come to another recurring problem in the "land of the free": the color of the skin grants you the right, or not, to walk freely in the streets with a lethal weapon; the white skin is tolerated and justified, the black one is automatically downgraded and charged with blame; the white man who kills does so because of some mental disturbance, the members of minorities because they are violent by race; no one wastes time discussing the psychological distress to which African Americans, especially, are subjected on a daily basis by the society that enslaved them and then freed them without guaranteeing them decent education and social assistance. But what most perplexed me, in addition to the premeditation of the Buffalo massacre, was the detail of the camera tied to the helmet of the reckless who was streaming on Twitch the innocents who, one by one, were killed as if they were beasts. The Twitch platform took two long and exhausting minutes to interrupt the live. Where are the controls on social networks? Did we simply throw them in the toilet, or are we too concerned with silencing only those we do not want to listen (minorities are also the most affected online because of "politically correct")? It even seems that Gendron made use of another internet channel to confess the gesture he was about to make and invite users to enjoy the shooting from the comfort of the sofa at home. And as if the incompetent online were not enough, that day even the 911 receptionist proved to have less professionalism than a three-month-old baby: at the call of Latisha Rogers, who begged in a whisper to send help to the supermarket in which Gendron already had opened fire, the 911 operator yelled at her asking why she was speaking in a low voice. At Rogers' reply "I'm afraid he can hear me", communication is interrupted by those who, promptly, should have mobilized the police cars. Even more unacceptable is the fact that the name of the person responsible for this shameful disservice has not been made public and that there is only talk of dismissal as punishment. I understand, one could fear for the safety of the person, but I do not think that the scruples are the same when a person belonging to a minority makes a mistake. 

The last sore point of journalistic reconstructions is the almost total absence of regard for those who have lost their lives. We linger too long to try to understand who the killers are, where they come from, or what kind of past weighs on their shoulders, forgetting those who were snatched from life by the decision of others, who probably had dreams and plans to realize, companions, children, family and friends to love and care for. I would like to dedicate these last sentences to the memory of Ruth Whitfield, Roberta Drury, Aaron Salter, Heyward Patterson, Pearl Young, Geraldine Talley, Celestine Chaney, Katherine Massey, Margus Morrison and Andre Mackneil. Their disappearance has left a pain and a void that nothing can fill. I hope that American society will one day open its eyes and really realize how deeply rooted the feelings of hatred and racism are in the minds of a very large part of the citizens. I hope that the Amerikkka built on the slaughters of natives and the slavery of black men, women and children does not forget this event and actively teaches the history behind the white colonizer, a story of suppression, hatred, mistakes and blood. Only truth and real repentance can put an end to the prejudices that are, even today, splitting American society and depriving some of its citizens of equality and fairness.