President Joe Biden delivered remarks in Buffalo, New York on Tuesday (May 17) after meeting with the families of the Tops Friendly Market mass shooting victims.
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived in the city to pay their respects to the 10 people who died after a self-proclaimed white supremacist entered the market and opened fire. Police officials have described the attack as a "racially-motivated hate crime" and uncovered evidence that the suspected gunman, Payton Gendron, planned the attack for months.
The Bidens laid flowers outside the market at a memorial created to honor the ten people who lost their lives in the shooting the President called a prime example of "domestic terrorism."
Biden spoke at the Delevan-Grider Community Center where he named all of the victims, how their families remember them and who they were in the Buffalo community.
In a heartbreaking portion of the speech, The President also described what the victims were doing at the store at the time of the attack: picking up strawberries to bake their favorite cake, picking up their 3-year-old son's birthday cake, grabbing snacks for weekly family movie night, getting ingredients for dinner as their sibling recovers from bone marrow transplant surgery, getting cold cuts to make sandwiches after spending the afternoon on the waterfront, working as a security guard.
"White supremacy will not have the last word," Biden said. "For the evil did come to Buffalo and it's come to all too many places, manifested in gunmen who massacre innocent people in the name of hateful and perverse ideology rooted in fear and racism."
"It's taken so much," he continued. "Ten lives cut short in a grocery store."
"What happened here is simple and straightforward: terrorism. Domestic terrorism," Biden added. "Violence in the service of inflicting hate ... that defines one group of people being inherently inferior to any other group."
Biden called out hate perpetuated in "media, politics, and the internet" that has "isolated individuals into falsely believing they will be replaced ... by people who don't look like them."
"I reject the lie. I call on all Americans to reject the lie," Biden said. "I condemn those who spread the lie for power, political gain, and for profit."
"White supremacy is a poison," the President said. "And it's been allowed to fester and grow right in front of our eyes."
"No more," he added. "No more."
Reading about Black trauma can have an impact on your mental health. If you or someone you know need immediate mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor. These additional resources are also available:
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
The National Alliance on Mental Illness 1-800-950-6264
The Association of Black Psychologists 1-301-449-3082
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America 1-240-485-1001
For more mental health resources, click HERE.
Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.