The grocery store, church, and spas are just a few of the places where people of color have been targeted and killed in hate-filled violent attacks such as the recent Buffalo, New York, mass shooting<\/a> where a white man drove 200 miles to a historic Black neighborhood\u00a0and shot 13 people in a store<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 11 of whom were Black. \u00a0<\/p>\n The mass shooting, which is now being investigated as a hate crime by the Department\u00a0of Justice, has prompted a resurgence of trauma and grief in Black Americans due to continued racial attacks on the targeted community, experts and local community leaders said.\u00a0<\/p>\n OPINION:<\/strong>Racial shooting reveals our duty to speak up<\/a><\/p>\n COMMUNITY BRIEFS:<\/strong>Black Voter Experience’ panel; Sarasota Opera camps; Second Heart Homes<\/a><\/p>\n Despite the physical distance from the shooting, African Americans in the region are faced again with a collective trauma that bubbles up following racial attacks on\u00a0the Black community. But that\u00a0isn\u2019t new, says attorney and mother Nurisha Harvey. \u00a0<\/p>\n Harvey, the daughter of a global diplomat and civil rights judge, points to the weight of generational trauma from centuries of \u2018hate-filled\u2019 acts that target Black people as the biggest trigger for communities of color when hate crimes occur.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe know the Black population is a targeted population,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cThe reality is Black, and brown, people have been targeted at vulnerable spaces historically. You have the Jim Crow era, church bombings, and lynchings. We\u2019ve had our shopping areas targeted; they\u2019ve destroyed our banks. If you go back and look this is not new, it\u2019s just a repeat,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Also:<\/strong>North Carolina student wins Embracing Our Differences\u2019 People’s Choice Award<\/a><\/p>\n Harvey, and other local community member, call the Buffalo shooting an act of domestic terrorism. Violent acts \u2014 like the one in Buffalo last weekend or the slaughter of nine Black churchgoers\u00a0by a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015\u00a0\u2014 continue to rattle communities of color across the country. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBlack residents may say they feel safe here but sometimes when things happen in a different state the Black community won\u2019t acknowledge that it can happen where they live, too,\u201d she said. \u201cBut in reality, as a targeted community, we have to be vigilant everywhere we are and everywhere we go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The FBI Hate Crime Statistics report released last October shows an increase in racial violence against Black people and people of color\u00a0in the U.S<\/a>. in recent years. According to the report, hate crimes against Black people rose from\u00a01,930 in 2019, to 2,755 in 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n The summer of 2020 began a time marked by protests, public outcry against racism, a global pandemic,\u00a0and the inception of a large social justice movement in the U.S. Since then, nearly 62% of victims of hate crimes have been documented as saying\u00a0they were targeted because of their race or ethnicity, according to the FBI data. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n Local community leaders say that Black residents in Sarasota generally feel safe in historically Black areas of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, Trevor Harvey, president of the Sarasota Chapter of NAACP, reiterated\u00a0that the targeted communities are the ones who inevitably have to deal with the aftermath of hate crimes, which adds to the stress and trauma of many Black people.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s shocking that we continue to see these kinds of incidents. Your first thought, as a\u00a0person of color, is\u00a0that there’s so much hatred in this country, in white America in particular, against communities of color,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n ‘Compassionate policing:’<\/strong> Sarasota Police Department, NAACP partner for recruit training<\/a><\/p>\n Harvey said the Buffalo shooting, the 2018 Pittsburgh shooting and the 2019 El Paso Walmart shooting, all of which targeted Black or brown victims, are a result of extremists who\u00a0believe rhetoric such as the “great replacement”\u00a0conspiracy theory, which suggests that white Europeans and white Americans are being replaced in society by people of color. The Buffalo shooter alluded to the \u2018great replacement\u2019 in a 180-page manifesto that was found following his arrest and detainment by authorities. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis was a calculated incident, well-thought out, executed plan… I\u2019m not buying that this is a result of his mental health, this is just pure evil,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cIt\u2019s racism.\u201d<\/p>\n Adding insult to injury, the Black community feels a collective frustration when domestic terrorists are treated differently in comparison to people of color in the criminal justice system, Harvey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are even more frustrated and angry when the type of punishment that should be rendered against these individuals that are committing domestic terrorism are not being punished to the fullest extent the law,\u201d Harvey says. \u201cUntil the system recognizes that these individuals are domestic terrorists, and they should be punished as domestic terrorists, we will continue to see punishment not being taken into the full effect, the way it should be.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But Harvey urged Black communities and other targeted communities of color\u00a0to continue to\u00a0lift themselves up and push forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to continue to talk together, pray together and be that sounding board for one another,\u201d Harvey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n Samantha Gholar covers social justice news for the Herald-Tribune and USA TODAY Network. Connect with her at\u00a0sgholar@gannett.com\u00a0<\/a>or on Twitter: @samanthagholar<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Trevor](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2021\/02\/12\/NSHT\/ed4dd937-63b3-4b09-bd06-0334333c8272-sNAACP04_04.jpg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp\")
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