The nation’s oldest civil rights organization said it will propose a sweeping plan meant to protect Black Americans from white supremacist violence in response to a hate-fueled massacre that killed 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, last weekend.
In a plan first shared with The Associated Press, the NAACP suggests a policy approach to stopping future acts of anti-Black domestic terrorism that involves law enforcement, business regulation and gun control. The proposal points to measures that could be taken up immediately by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.
Specifically, the plan calls for holding accountable any corporation that is complicit in the spread of bigotry and racism through news media and on social platforms, for enacting gun violence prevention measures that keep mass-casualty weapons out of the hands of would-be assailants and for reforming police practices so Black Americans experience the same de-escalation tactics often used to peacefully apprehend murderous white supremacists.
Saturday’s premeditated attack by an avowed racist on Black shoppers at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo made it clear that “democracy and white supremacy cannot co-exist,” NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said.
He is scheduled to meet with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday, a spokesperson for the civil rights group said.
The NAACP revealed its proposal as Black leaders across the country fret about inaction on the part of elected leaders to prevent domestic terror attacks by white supremacist against Black Americans. From Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Birmingham, Alabama, to Charleston, South Carolina, and Charlottesville, Virginia, generations of Americans have not seen the rising death toll from such violence met with urgent legislation to prevent or reduce the threat.
The Ku Klux Klan bombing that killed four Black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – historic legislation that outlawed segregation. It did not address the Klan’s violence.
Gruesome images of Alabama state troopers and white vigilantes brutally beating voting rights marchers in Selma spurred enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – landmark legislation that outlawed Black voter suppression. It did not address excessive uses of police force on peaceful demonstrators.
And it had been 67 years after the murder of Emmett Till, a black teen from Chicago who was kidnapped in Mississippi, lynched and dumped in a river after he was falsely accused of whistling at a white woman, before Congress enacted an anti-lynching law. President Joe Biden signed the bill in late March, more than a year after using his inaugural speech to warn of the rise in white supremacist ideology and domestic terrorism.
“White supremacy is a poison,” Biden reiterated Tuesday during a visit to Buffalo. “We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America.”
As the coronavirus pandemic gave rise to anti-Asian hate crimes, Congress quickly enacted legislation that encourages reporting of such crimes. It also gave law enforcement more resources to handle increased reporting.
But now, in the wake of the white supremacist attack in Buffalo, Black civil rights advocates are wondering if they’ll see the same haste from lawmakers on anti-Black hate crimes. The House passed legislation late Wednesday night that would bolster federal resources to prevent domestic terrorism in response to the mass shooting. Supporters of the House bill say it will help officials better track and respond to the growing threat of white extremist terrorism. But the bill still has to receive approval from the Senate.
“We need to know that our top leaders in America react and respond when we are hurt, too, like they acted and responded when others were hurt,” said prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family of 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, the eldest victim to die in the Buffalo attack.
Andrea Boyles, an associate professor of sociology and Africana studies at Tulane University, said part of the Black experience in America is seeing racialized violence against Black communities treated as a non-urgent matter.
“The message of it all has consistently been that where there is hate towards Black people, there is least likely to be consequences,” Boyles said. “We should be clear with elected officials, Black and white, Democratic or Republican, that talking points can no longer be the trend.”
The NAACP’s policy proposal seeks systemic and institutional changes that look beyond just punishing racist domestic terrorists after they have carried out mass murder. The civil rights group takes to task Fox News, the cable news channel it accuses of using airtime “to sow bigotry and racism, create dissension, spread misinformation, and promote conspiracy theories that continually encourage violence.”
It also namechecked Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has openly discussed on air the baseless “great replacement” conspiracy theory cited by the Buffalo gunman. The conspiracy is a racist ideology, which has moved from white nationalist circles to mainstream, that says white people and their influence are being “replaced” by people of color.
The NACCP also called on advertisers, including the National Football League, to take a moral stand against the cable news outlet by withholding their ad dollars.
On gun violence prevention, the NAACP prescribes the creation of a “domestic terror watch list” and the banning of those on the list from legally purchasing a firearm. And on police reforms, the proposal calls on Biden to take executive action in lieu of the stalled George Floyd Justice in Policing Act before the two-year anniversary of Floyd’s murder next week.
“All police and law enforcement officers must submit to a thorough review of their affiliations to determine they are not aligned with white supremacist organizations,” the NAACP suggests in its proposal.
Patrice Willoughby, the NAACP’s vice president of policy and legislative affairs, said the federal government already has some of the tools it needs to begin acting on the policy proposals.
“Unless there is sort of a holistic approach to stamping out hatred, we are never going to have the type of society in which people are free to live and work without fear,” she said.
Across the civil rights community, Black activists echoed the NAACP’s call for action to address white supremacy and violence.
Amara Enyia, policy and research coordinator for Movement for Black Lives, said it’s important to acknowledge that the shooting in Buffalo was not an individual act of violence, but instead a symptom and evidence of a systemic problem that has grown significantly in recent years.
“These atrocities that are committed are systems, and they’re systems of a structural and systemic cancer,” Enyia said. “You have this person who is fueled by anti-Black racism and a society whose systems are built on anti-Black racism.
“When we understand that, it can’t come as a surprise that this person would act out in this way, because he reflects a certain worldview that unfortunately undergirded the various systems upon which this society was built. And those of us who are organizers, activists, we’ve been working to try to dismantle these systems because they’ve been harmful.”
Color of Change President Rashad Robinson noted that white supremacists and nationalists have access to wider audiences now and are able to spread hateful and dangerous rhetoric across various online platforms. Robinson has called for stricter regulation of social media platforms to prevent the proliferation of supremacist materials and ideologies.
“What we’re seeing right now, with the dominance of social media platforms, is an unchecked corporate infrastructure whose incentive structures demand a type of engagement that makes going down the rabbit hole of white supremacy way more likely,” Robinson said. “Until we actually have consequences on the 21st century, technological infrastructure, we will be a place where it’s going to be dragging us back to the 18th and 19th century.”
Stafford reported from Detroit. Morrison and Stafford are members of the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow Morrison on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison. Follow Stafford on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kat__stafford.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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The nation’s oldest civil rights organization said it will propose a sweeping plan meant to protect Black Americans from white supremacist violence in response to a hate-fueled massacre that killed 10 Black people in Buffalo, New York, last weekend.
I.A.W. U.S. Census & FBI (Table 43a)
Black males make up about 7% of the U.S. population but every year commit ~56% of all the murders in the U.S… Every year in the U.S. there are ~6,000 African-Americans men, women and children killed and 92% of them were killed by fellow African-Americans.
Where is the outrage from “Black Lives Matter” and prominent members of the African-American community? Where are the words of condemnation and sorrow from “Black Lives Matter”, Obama, Al Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson over the fact that members of their own race are summarily executing each other?
Another proposal from a racist organization trying to fan the flames of racism. Maybe they should look at themselves and the rest of the black population. Black on black killings are the cause of most black death rates. It’s hard to tell if the NAACP, blm, and all the other black organizations are trying to cause that second civil/race war that been brewing in this country for a long time now. Should they keep up their racist actions then they may well get that wish of that war happening, and black swill suffer the most.
THING IS, for years, THEY and the DNC have been force feeding the black community, ONLY WHITES can be racist… So they believe it hole heartedly.
Don’t bother me at all; just like when cartels have their turf wars. Less expense into my tax dollars.
The Black Crime against others of the Black Race are much higher than the White Race Crime Rate Against Those of the Black Race, maybe the justice system needs to punish Black on Black Crimes More Severly than it has.When some of the elite don’t even Follow Their own religious principles, Nancy Pelosi, being Against having Abortions, they don’t have a leg to stand on.
AHH but anyone daring to suggest that, would quickly get labeled a racist…
Well, Mr Johnson, it is clear to me from reading this article that your ambition is not to protect the lives of Black people as you indicate, but rather to further racial division and make the issue a Black/White issue when it is far more than that.
Why are you so concerned solely about the loss of Black lives at the hands of Whites—“White Supremacists” as you call them? Are you aware that more Blacks are killed by other Blacks than Whites? Are you familiar with Chicago? Where has your concern been all this time while the murder capital of the US racks up Black deaths on a daily basis?
I think you are engaging in a politically motivated publicity stunt in order to gain Media attention and fan the flames of sensationalism and to hide the bigotry towards Whites held by a number of Blacks—be that number great or small—particularly by activists who have been brainwashed into protesting everything. This is a total sham.
BECAUSE LIKE BLM< they care not about black on black crime. ONLY WHEN WHITES do it..
The ” B.L.M. Leaders have became Rich Beating The Old Race Card , Millionaires. Booker Warned “Against A Certain Class Of Black People Who Have Made A Pretty Good Living , To Paraphrase Booker T. Washington, like the elite of B.L. M. Have.
If we look at INTERracial violent crime stats, we see that black-on-white violent crime is MASSIVELY lopsided. Black-on-white rapes, for example, according to the FBI, happen at a rate of 15,000-30,000 times a year. Compared to less than 10 of white-on-black rapes, you can’t get more lopsided. And rape IS perhaps the most heinous violent crime, to be honest.
YET< you can bet not ONE OF THOSE black rapists, ever got charged with a hate crime. AND I can guarantee at least SOME OF THOSE 10 white rapists DID get charged with a hate crime.
The NAACP is not the nation’s oldest civil rights group. The NRA is. The NRA was founded in 1871 and protects the rights of all Americans and has never strayed from that purpose. Meanwhile the NAACP has strayed far from it’s original purpose. It now acts more like a part of the Democratic Party than a civil rights organization. Many of the policies that the NAACP now support hurt minorities. The NAAPC needs to support the right to self defense, school choice, etc which would help minorities.
AND SINE IT only pushes special privileges for BLACKS, how is it NOT A RACIST ORG!
Where is the “national white’ org? Or the national asian org??
Naacp, maybe the oldest hate group in the country. Naacp, when are you going to start talking about taking guns out If the hands of criminals ???
Never.. THEY DON’T care about the guns in CROOKS hands. JUST IN OUR Hands.
This is just another attempt by the leftists democrats to make it harder for law abiding citizens both black and white but history proves they have never wanted black Americans to own firearms
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson needs to sit down and read the killer’s “manifesto.” The Buffalo monster was anything but “right wing,” and he hated Fox News because it “had been taken over by Jews.”
But Johnson doesn’t want to stamp out racism, he’s focused on stamping out conservatives.
FACTS never ever matter to these nutters on the left.
Never have, never will.
I read from Canada that he was a Socialist/communist. Communist hate blacks and jews.
The NAACP, BLM, ANTIFA makes me sick!! : A Black Conservative.
Negros Are Always Crying Prejudice (NAACP); Burn, Loot, Maim (BLM); Anti family (ANTIFA)
No need to say more
I forgot who said it, but ‘when you are used to having preferential or special treatment, BEING TREATED The same as everyone else, seems like oppression”
people like this guy want a race war.
The NAACP is a Communist organization just like the ACLU. None of their requests should be honored or given any consideration. Murder is murder and is already against the law. The problem is, criminals have no fear of the law because there is no death penalty anymore and going to jail or prison is no threat to them. Start executing murderers and we’ll see that crime diminish. The yardstick to judge an organization or person is if they equally condemn the black on black/white murders and if not then they are liars and hypocrites.
The best thing the naacp can do is to defund themselves. They have become the ” of color” version of what racism is.
You know crazies come in all colors and nationalities, so let’s not be bigots and pick on a particular color, be inclusive and just. How many white people were run down recently watching a Christmas parade, or shot in a metro station, wow? It is very convenient to forget what does not fit your narrative, but you can’t hide the reality of the facts.
Yes they can.. FACTS NEVER matter to libtards.
Here’s another bunch of political crooks, the NAACP. Instead of addressing THEIR BLACK ON BLACK CRIME in all THEIR democrat run cities and states, they continue to play THEIR race game on THEIR country! Drugs and crimes are the bi-product of the Black American elites! Everyone on the left wants to be a BIGSHOT!!!
Can you write a better article?
GREAT REPLACEMENT isn’t a “conspiracy”, it’s a proven FACT that it is occurring. In any quantifiable measure, it is a fact that European-Americans are being replaced. Figuratively and literally. I don’t know how anyone could look at the landscape and come to any other conclusion. That isn’t “conspiracy”, that’s just literal truth.
So killing of a black person by a white is hate crime but killing of a black by a black is now the fault of the weapon maker and only way to eliminate this is confiscating all weapons. It worked for hitler why not here. But mine needs to be taken off my dead body.
Yea, blacks can’t ever be responsible FOR THEIR OWN ACTIONS…