SOMA Action Racial Justice & Religious Justice Committee's Statement on the Racist Terror Attack in Buffalo

We mourn the precious lives lost in the racist terrorist shooting in Buffalo, NY. We speak with a unified, unequivocal voice in stating that we stand against the racist ideology that led to this outrage. As a group that is inclusive on all aspects of identity, we include people whose identities make us targets of white supremacy and its various conspiracy theories, including the “replacement theory.” We are Black, Jewish, Muslim, Asian, LGBTQ, and immigrants. We are also white people and people of Christian background who stand in full solidarity and community with our neighbors.

The way we stand in solidarity is through our political action. The racist, nativist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and homophobic conspiracy theories that produced sickening gun massacres in Buffalo, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, El Paso, Charleston, and other places have become part of mainstream Republican thinking and are promoted every single day on Fox News and in other media. This right-wing movement has also made guns easily accessible to everyone. By stoking racism and conspiratorial thinking and pouring guns into every corner of the country, the right-wing in our nation has created a state of terror.

We refuse to be terrorized. We refuse to allow a political minority to grab power through undemocratic means. We will never stop working toward a country in which no one has to live in fear. Our outrage and sadness only fuel us to continue our work to elect responsible, humane, progressive leaders and to save democracy. 

As the African American spiritual says: 

We shall not be moved. 

We shall not be moved. 

Like a tree planted by the water, 

we shall not be moved.