Longtime city resident Max Anderson found himself moving fast through a nearby grocery store the day after a white gunman in military garb opened fire at a Buffalo supermarket in a Black area Saturday afternoon, killing ten people.
Anderson, who is Black and works approximately a block from the shooting scene, described going to a nearby store for lunch as a "very tense" experience.
Anderson said the shooting of a Black community by a shooter who purportedly espouses racist beliefs has shaken him and many other Black people around the country.
Hate crimes have a cumulative impact, from lynchings and church bombings to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and beyond.
Experts say it shatters trust and can cause widespread worry, stress, sadness, hopelessness, and post-traumatic stress.
"Unfortunately, the shooting in Buffalo is yet another act of racial violence in a long history of anti-Black brutality dating back to the beginning of this country.