Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t just tout the Biden administration’s climate change initiatives during her visit to Buffalo Wednesday. She also once again met with the families of those killed in the racist mass shooting at Tops Market.
Several of them spoke privately with Harris at the University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts following her speech there about the Inflation Reduction Act. It was four months to the day of the May 14 massacre that left 10 Black people dead and that law enforcement says was committed by a white supremacist.
“We talked about how a lot of the media, a lot of the cameras and the lights and the attention that was focused on Buffalo and this tragic event have subsided, have moved on,” said Garnell Whitfield Jr., whose 86-year-old mother Ruth Whitfield was among those killed in the attack. “And she said that her and the president's administration were committed to working with us to try to bring about some change. And so we're glad that she's here.”
It wasn’t the Whitfields’ first time meeting Harris, who attended their mother’s funeral at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo May 28.
The family called their relationship with the vice president a “special bond” on several occasions, but also stressed they hope to make something constructive out of that bond.
“We don't take that lightly at all, and we look to cultivate this relationship, to nurture it, to help to bring about change, not only in Buffalo, but across the nation,” Garnell Whitfield Jr. said.
One of the ways Harris told the family that the Biden administration is working to bring about change is Friday’s United We Stand Summit. The gathering at the White House is expected to address racially-motivated violence, extremism and attacks on democracy. President Joe Biden will give the keynote address that the White House says will “put forward a shared vision of a more united America.”
Harris told the family that the president will stress coalition building.
“How do we bring our communities together? How do we get past the hate to build constructive paths?” said Whitfield’s other son, Raymond Whitfield. “So we're looking forward to that conversation with the president and fighting that good fight.”
The speech will be a “great opportunity” for Biden to directly confront racism and hate, Garnell Whitfield Jr. added.
“One of things we have to do is talk about it and educate the public about it, because that's part of the problem is the ignorance,” he said.
The Whitfield family plans to be in Washington, D.C., themselves next week to rally for a federal ban on assault weapons like the one used in the Tops massacre.
Whitfield’s daughter, Robin Harris, sat next to Harris during her mother’s funeral. She said she was “grateful” to Harris for returning to Buffalo.
“She didn’t have to,” she said. “And I want to thank her. And I love her.”
Raymond Whitfield said the vice president has told the family that their cause is personal to her, and that she seemed “genuine.”
“So we're going to take her at her word,” he said, “and of course, we're going to hold her to that word.”
