On Saturday, a White supremacist entered a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, FL, and massacred three Black people. Moments earlier, the murderer had been told to leave the campus of Edward Waters University, a Historically Black College & University located less than a mile away.
We live in a country that tries very hard to explain away anti-Black violence as the work of hate-filled individuals, refusing to acknowledge centuries of systemic White supremacy advanced by powerful people who benefit from it. But let's be clear: Angela Carr (52), Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion (29), and Anolt Laguerre, Jr. (19) are dead because a man acted on the lie that White people are inherently superior, making Black people inherently inferior. That White supremacist violence—violence that stems from a lie—is the largest domestic terrorism threat for many years running and a scourge for communities that crave the safety all of us are due.
It cannot go unsaid that the history required to expose this lie is also under attack in Florida and that lying about the history of White supremacy is a necessary condition for it to flourish. As Jacksonville mourns the second racist shooting in five years, it does so under conditions where it is illegal for teachers to put that racism in context. That is, at a time when many are trying to make sense of it, there are laws impeding that basic human process.
Florida has been the site of 319 racist lynchings, and the nation has repeatedly endured cycles of racist violence aided by book bans and lies about our history. If we hope to honor Angela Carr, Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, and Anolt Laguerre, Jr. and those who loved them, we owe them more than our prayers, our sympathies, or even our political mobilization. We owe them a commitment to remember the truth about how we got here, as a nation and in Jacksonville in particular. May God smile on the memories of the fallen in Jacksonville, and may their families find some comfort in our collective prayers, action, and commitment to remember.