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White supremacy became a trending term in the wake of the Buffalo shooting incident, and the incident still looms heavily across the nation. President Joe Biden addressed residents of the upstate New York city, and referred to white supremacy as a “poison.”
“White Supremacy Is A Poison”
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden delivered remarks at the Delavan Grider Community Center in Buffalo on Tuesday (May 17). During the speech, Biden referred to the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism, while also condemning the white supremacist leanings among some American citizens.
From the speech:
Look, we’ve seen the mass shootings in Charleston, South Carolina; El Paso, Texas; in Pittsburgh; last year in Atlanta; this week in Dallas, Texas; and now in Buffalo — in Buffalo, New York.
White supremacy is a poison. It’s a poison — (applause) — running through — it really is — running through our body politic. And it’s been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes.
No more. I mean, no more. We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. (Applause.) None.
Biden’s speech also included riffs about not wanting to run for president and the state of the nation at large before returning to the script. The pointed wording of the remarks also made several references to the divisive racial climate in America.
The victims of the shooting were mentioned in Biden’s remarks, including 53-year-old Andre Mackneil, who was inside Tops buying a birthday cake for his three-year-old boy. Roberta Drury, the youngest victim at 32, was shopping for groceries as she cared for a sick sibling. Ruth Whitfield at 88 was the eldest of the victims.
Earlier in the day, the Bidens stopped at a memorial site while the first lady put down flowers in their honor. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand among others followed suit.
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Photo: Getty
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