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Several terrorist attacks have once again put American society in mourning this weekend. On Saturday in the City of Buffalo, New York, an 18-year-old man went to a supermarket killing 10 people in cold blood, and in another similar event, a 68-year-old man shot several people in a church in California.
Precisely the two terrorist attacks occurred in two of the states with the most restrictive gun laws in the Union: California and New York. These states have also seen one of the largest increases in crime rates in the last decade, thanks to a combination of lax anti-crime policies by progressive local governments, moves to defund the police, and the disarmament of the civilian population.
However, I do not want to make this text a debate on gun control laws, what I do want to emphasize is the reaction of the Biden admin to the attacks that occurred this weekend, and in recent months.
In the last few hours, all the media, including the Biden’s cabinet, have been horrified, rightly so, by the savage attack in Buffalo since most of the victims were black, and the attacker was an unhinged white man, who, by the way, admitted to having been a communist in his youth and described himself as an authoritarian leftist—but that is another issue.
The issue that pains me is that it seems that some victims are worth more than others, according to their skin color. Biden said he would go to Buffalo to accompany the victims of the terrorist attack; however, 6 months have passed since the Waukesha massacre — which was perpetrated by an African American — and the president not only has not gone to visit the victims, but they basically made the issue invisible.
The same happened with the recent terrorist attack allegedly committed by Frank James, a black nationalist who shot several people in the New York subway, or even the most recent attack in California.
When the attack is committed by a white man, the crime is quickly labeled as a crime fueled by white supremacism, forcing the Biden administration to speak out and mobilize. Unfortunately, when the attack is committed by a black man, the silence is absolute.
It seems that the current administration must be asked to put racism aside, all attacks against any American, regardless of race, are reprehensible, and we should not look at the skin color of the perpetrator to know whether we condemn him or not.
We demand justice for all victims and exemplary punishment for all violent criminals, regardless of their skin color.
This article originally appeared in El American’s newsletter on May 17, 2022. Subscribe for free here.
Emmanuel Rincón is a lawyer, writer, novelist and essayist. He has won several international literary awards. He is Editor-at-large at El American // Emmanuel Rincón es abogado, escritor, novelista y ensayista. Ganador de diversos premios literarios internacionales. Es editor-at-large en El American