Parlor Edwards was a taxi driver in Buffalo, trying to take care of his family. And so was Ernest Jones.
Both were killed and found with their hearts cut out in October 1980. What the Hell was going on?
A white supremacist killer, Joseph Christopher, was on the loose and targeting Black men. He took four lives just thirty-six hours into his spree, and this terror continued for months.
The media defended the ".22 caliber killer" in the most typical way.
Whites love blaming their hatred for our people on mental illness, and that's what happened with Christopher. Every time THEY commit a mass shooting or kill one of us, the media infantilizes the killers.
Mental health is very real, but so is white supremacy.
Studies show that when media use this framing, "78 percent of white attackers were described as being victims of society." Psychiatric Times reports, "Individuals with mental illness are more likely to be the victims—not the perpetrators—of violent crimes."
We're all stressed, and many people struggle mentally, but racism is NOT a mental illness.
We don't deserve to live in a world like this. We must leave everything about this system behind and create our own world without white influence. Imagine living in a world where we could truly be free to exist in our Black bodies.