The murder of three Black persons at a Dollar General store in Florida on a Saturday afternoon was the most recent instance of gun violence in America that was motivated by racism; federal officials have called this national scourge one of the worst types of contemporary domestic terrorism.
The fatal shootings in Jacksonville, carried out by a white man in his early 20s who authorities say “hated Black people,” come after other fatal shootings at public gathering places motivated by hatred, including a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in 2022, a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019.
The outbreaks of gun violence are a part of a longer, more extensive history of racial terror in the US that dates back to the nation’s formation and spans more than two centuries. According to the FBI & the Department of Homeland Security, violent domestic extremists are frequently radicalized online in the modern era.
A thorough investigation conducted by President Joe Biden’s national security team two years ago revealed that “racially or ethnically inspired violent extremists,” particularly those who ” encourage the supremacy of the white race,” reflected one of the most “persistent and lethal threats” to the homeland.
According to the assessment, “these actors have various motivations, but many direct their violence toward the same segment or segments of the American community, whether persons of color, Muslims, immigrants, Jews, women and girls, other religious minorities, LGBTQI+ individuals, or others.”
At a press conference held on Saturday, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters claimed that the shooting was “racially inspired” and carried out by a “maniac.” A federal civil rights investigation into the incident has been launched, and it will be investigated as a hate crime, according to Sherri Onks, the FBI special agent who is in charge of the Jacksonville office.
The FBI will “bring all that we have to bear in order to bring justice for the families” of the victims because hate crimes “are always and always will be a top priority for the FBI since they are not only an assault on a victim, but they’re also meant to intimidate and threaten an entire community,” Onks said.
On social media, the shooter who killed 11 people and injured seven others at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill area on October 27, 2018, frequently expressed his hatred for Jewish people and immigrants. He was given the death penalty.
On August 3, 2019, a self-described white nationalist opened fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, killing 23 people. He specifically targeted persons of Mexican heritage and posted an anti-immigrant tirade online immediately before he started shooting. He was given a life sentence with 90 consecutive sentences.
10 people were shot and killed in a Buffalo grocery store called Tops Friendly Markets by a man who claimed he did it “because they were Black.” He was given a life sentence in prison.
In a report released in March, the Anti-Defamation League stated that it had tracked more than 6,700 instances of white supremacist propaganda dissemination and live events in the past year, a number it referred to as an “all-time high.” The group discovered that with the exception of Hawaii, antisemitic, racist, and anti-LGBTQ material had been reported.
According to the research, Florida had the eighth-highest degree of white nationalist activity.
Two days before the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom’s 60th anniversary, and on the same day that thousands marched in the nation’s capital to remember the occasion, there was bloodshed in Jacksonville.
The NAACP’s president and CEO, Derrick Johnson, said in a statement: “It’s an awful day in America when we learn that extremists would do everything to sabotage our work to thrive. “While we marched for freedom in Washington, hateful individuals in Jacksonville carried out the white supremacist agenda, killing Black Americans in the name of a time we refuse to return to.”
The tragedy of today serves as a reminder of why we march and why we will do everything in our power to make sure that democracy benefits all people, he continued.