Western New York has done a tremendous job supporting the loved ones of the victims as well as the Jefferson Avenue community at large over the past ten days. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about this community. We have a long history here of coming together during times of need. After all, we are the “City of Good Neighbors,” right? The need this time, however, is different. Sadly, it is not new either.
This wasn’t a snowstorm. This wasn’t some generalized process that broadly affected the people of our region. This wasn’t really even an attack on Buffalo per se. This was an attack on black people that happened in Buffalo because 80 plus years of systemic racism in this region created a profoundly segregated city that availed itself to an evil person looking to kill as many people as possible based on the color of their skin.
The need here is not attainable through donations or wearing t-shirts. Although these are a nice start, what we really need is policy change and organized investment on the part of our local and state government focused on ending racial residential segregation in Buffalo. To get there, our politicians will need to see said policy changes and investment as being the will of the people at large, which will require a change in the way many people think around here. That is the challenge.
Certainly, we need to be loud and emphatic in exposing, denouncing, and holding accountable anyone with openly hateful words or actions. Hate is alive and well in WNY, and any long-term more profound goal for an equitable Buffalo can never be realized if we can’t at the bare minimum agree that white supremacy is a grotesque and perverse ideology with no place in this community.
To get the policy change and investment required for a more equitable Buffalo, however, we are going to need change the perception that many white people-consciously or unconsciously- have about black people in Buffalo. As a white male that grew up in suburban Buffalo, I feel I can speak to the way many white people in this region think and act. I have seen it and heard it first-hand.
In the Buffalo-Niagara region 64% of black people live in areas of concentrated poverty compared to only 14% of white people.
Why is this the case?
My challenge to white people in Buffalo is to open their minds and hearts as to why this disparity exists. Don’t fall victim to a convenient rationalization that attempts to simply explain such a complex disparity away by attributing it to work ethic or some other non-sensical characteristic. The answer to the question is messy, but it is foundationally important if we are serious about “choosing love” in Western New York.
There is perhaps no better resource for making sense of the inequity in Buffalo than the work of Dr. Henry Louis Taylor. I encourage everyone to watch with the video above that was featured on CBS last week, and read at least the “Executive Summary” and “Recommendations” portions of the The Harder We Run, a report that was issued last year by Dr. Taylor and his colleagues with the University at Buffalo’s Center for Urban Studies, Community Health Equity Institute, and School of Architecture and Planning that details the root causes and potential solutions to the inequity that plagues our city.
We must open our hearts and minds to the idea that poverty is not a choice.
We must open our hearts and minds to the idea that poverty is not a choice. Rather, it is the very likely result of being born into a divested environment devoid of stable jobs that pay a living wage, with deep-seated barriers to homeownership (the primary way of achieving wealth in the US), and severe limitations in terms of access to jobs, education, healthy food, and healthcare due to a woefully inadequate public transportation system and an avoidance on the part of many local businesses and corporations to open stores and offices in said environment. We must consider that higher crime rates in impoverished neighborhoods are a consequence of poverty and despair, not a reflection of the moral character of people that live there.
We cannot in good faith continue to call ourselves the “City of Good Neighbors” if we continue to turn a blind eye to the systemic problems that disproportionately hold our black friends and neighbors back. To deserve that moniker, we must continue to come together in the coming months and years by choosing love with our actions, not just our words.
Additional Resources:
- Anna Blatto: A City Divided: A Brief History of Segregation in Buffalo
- Jim Heaney: Buffalo is Segregation City
- Rod Watson: Shooter Pulled The Trigger, But Others Share the Blame for Poisonous Racial Climate
- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: American Racism and the Buffalo Shooting
- Poverty in Buffalo: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions
- Advancing Healthy Equity and Inclusive Growth in Buffalo
Lead image courtesy Derek Neuland
“I captured the “heart” photo on Friday, May 13th downtown at Central Library while I was photographing the monthly creative networking event Creative Mornings Buffalo. After the horrific events that occurred the day after, this photo has taken on new meaning to me. And I wanted to share it in hopes it can help anyone else heal during this incredibly hard time for so many in our city.” – Derek