US President Joe Biden called for unity to fight white supremacy on Tuesday in Buffalo, NY, and called this ideology poison. Three days ago, a gunman, motivated by racist ideas, killed 10 people in a supermarket in the city.
The American leader reclassified the case of domestic terrorism. “Hate will not prevail. White supremacy will not have the final word. It was a racist attack, broadcast live to the world. What happened here was terrorism, domestic terrorism,” he said.
“White supremacy is a poison, coursing through our body politic, which has been growing in front of our eyes,” Biden said. “We have to say clearly that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. It’s time for people of all races, from all backgrounds, to speak up like the majority of America and reject white supremacy. These actions we’ve seen these hate-filled attacks represent the view of a minority. We cannot let them destroy America’s soul.”
“Silence is complicity. We cannot keep quiet. We must refuse to live in a country where black people going to the market can be killed by weapons of war used in a racist act. We must refuse to live in a country where hatred and lies are used to gain power. And profits,” the president continued.
Alongside the first lady, the president went to the memorial set up near the supermarket where the attack took place. He then spoke to the victims’ families and rescue workers and, in the early afternoon, gave a speech in which he spoke about the victims’ story.
On Saturday (14), Payton Gendron, 18, opened fire on shoppers at a supermarket in New York state, leaving three injured in addition to the dead. The gunman, who broadcast the attack live on the internet, published a manifesto to justify the attack, in which he cites racist theories, such as that blacks are taking the place of whites in society. Of the 13 people affected, 11 were black and two were white. Gendron is white.
Before the attack, the gunman posted a manifesto on a social network in which he defended racist ideas, such as that blacks were taking the place of whites in the US, in a conspiracy theory called the “great replacement”.
The idea that whites are under threat in the face of the growing population of blacks, Latinos and immigrants is echoed, directly or indirectly, by some Republican politicians and Fox News presenters, especially Tucker Carlson, one of the network’s main anchors.
In addition to calling for unity against hate, Biden used the speech to remember the victims’ life stories and offer condolences. He said little about practical measures. “We can keep assault weapons off our streets. We’ve done this before. We passed a crime law and violence went down. Shootings went down,” he said. He also defended measures to curb the use of the internet to recruit terrorists and encourage new hate attacks, but did not detail actions to do so.
One measure advocated to reduce the risk of attacks is to expand background checks, preventing people with a history of violence or mental problems from buying a gun. A federal bill on the subject was approved in 2021 in the House, but is stalled in the Senate.
The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, and some federal laws also regulate the issue. Changes are difficult because Republicans, with power in the Senate to block proposals that change the US Charter, place guns as a symbol of freedom to be defended.
In April of this year, the White House announced measures against “ghost guns,” unregistered ghost weapons that can be assembled in kits with separate parts. The Justice Department now considers them firearms and requires background checks at the time of purchase.
Although the US government paid great attention to international terrorism after the September 11, 2001 attacks, statistics show that there have been many more violent actions carried out by US activists in the last decade.
A survey carried out by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) found 450 murders committed with motivation linked to political extremism in the country from 2012 to 2021. Of these, 75% were related to radical right-wing ideas, such as white supremacism (55% present in of cases). Attacks linked to radical views of Islam accounted for 20% of the cases, and 4% were related to left-wing extremism.
