BUFFALO, N.Y. — Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center hosted the first event of Remembrance Weekend organized by the 5/14 Remembrance Committee.
The "Beyond Hate" panel discussion focused on having raw conversations about racism and how Buffalo has started the healing process in the year since the shooting at Tops.
"Love begins with truth-telling. It always begins with truth-telling, and healing begins with truth-telling," said Most Reverend Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.
The panelists focused on the theme of being real and honest about racism and white supremacy in America, acknowledging that it exists, and that feelings about 5/14 are still raw.
"I remember just walking into the parking lot after the police commissioner called me and told me what was happening, and rushing there, and seeing bodies laying on the ground in the parking lot covered with sheets, and the bottom of the sheets getting red with blood. I feel that trauma. I can only imagine the nightmares, the pain, the horror that people feel that actually saw people getting shot down in that way," Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said.
But they are also looking to the future, and want to make sure funding and resources actually get to where they are needed in our community.
"And unless we're thinking about the power dynamics that led to these issues to begin with and putting community first, and putting community as a driver of the change, then we really are not going to have the kind of change that will be long term and sustained," said Dr. Helene Gayle, president of Spelman College.
"I think the federal government, the state government, they need to intervene in such a way that the dollars that are being spent will benefit Black people that live in East Buffalo and we need to not be afraid to call it out and say Black, say East Side, right," Mayor Brown said.
After the panel discussion, Friday morning's keynote speaker was New York Times bestselling author, professor, and anti-racism activist Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, who spoke for almost an hour, but his contract does not allow people to record his speeches.