The racially-motivated shooting in Buffalo on Saturday filled us all with horror and sadness. The loss of life in senseless violence is always a tragedy, but the murder of innocent people who were targeted because of their identity is especially painful.
We feel this anger and grief every time we hear about an attack on Black and other racialized groups, or religious, ethnic, LGBTQ2S+ or other minority groups who have been targeted. Each time we want to believe it is the last one, but it isn’t. Every attack is motivated by a belief system that values some lives over others, and they will not end unless we change those beliefs.
It reminds us that we need to keep working every day, in our communities, our workplaces and in our shared institutions to root out this ideology of hate. Within our union family we need to continue to learn and educate each other, and to have difficult but necessary conversations about the beliefs systems that make racist violence possible. By challenging our own assumptions and biases, we can fight injustice in the world around us more effectively.