The Communities Combating Hate Coalition of Minnesota is horrified by the massacre in Buffalo, NY.
Our hearts break for the victims and their families. No one should have to fear going to their neighborhood grocery store. No one should have to mourn a loved one stolen by racist violence.
We stand in solidarity with the Black community, and all communities targeted by hate.
This attack is part of an unrelenting string of terrorist attacks perpetrated by those targeting communities of color and religious minorities; from the massacre of Black worshipers in Charleston, SC in 2015, to the mass murder of Jewish congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, to the 2020 killing of Latinx shoppers at an El Paso Walmart, to the murders at Asian businesses in Atlanta last year.
All these hateful acts of violence were fueled by white nationalist ideology and rhetoric that demonizes communities of color, religious minorities, and queer and trans people. This rhetoric has been repeated and pushed into the mainstream by media outlets and political leaders who seek power by sowing fear and division.
In Minnesota, our communities have experienced this first hand in the past year alone. We witnessed the defacing of the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul with white supremacist language, the cancellation of in-person services at Minneapolis’ Beth-El Synagogue due to a serious threat, and the vandalization of an Islamic cemetery in Dakota County with white supremacist grafitti.
Our communities are experiencing a crisis of hateful violence, and we must invest in every tool possible to fight it. We ask that legislative leadership approve funding for anti-hate initiatives at the Minnesota Department of Human Rights as proposed by the House and Walz administrations’ budgets.
We must work together to close the loopholes in hate crime reporting that have left far too many incidents of hate unreported and too many survivors invisible. These provisions are currently in the proposed public safety budget and it’s crucial to our communities that they remain there as negotiations progress. Our communities are asking – please do not let the fight against hate fall by the wayside in negotiations. Especially not this year.
No matter who we are or where we come from, we all want to feel safe in our state. In the aftermath of yet another unspeakable tragedy, it is time for lawmakers to take action to make safety a reality for all Minnesotans.
In mourning and solidarity,
The Communities Combating Hate Coalition:
African Career Education and Resources | Anti-Defamation League, Midwest | Asian American Organizing Project | Council on American Islamic Relations – MN | Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) | Gender Justice | Inquilinxs Unidxs For Justicia/Renters United for Justice | Japanese American Citizens League – Twin Cities Chapter | Jewish Community Action | Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota & The Dakotas | Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance | National Council of Jewish Women, Minnesota | OutFront MN | Protect Minnesota | Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment | Unidos MN | Women for Political Change