The mass shooting that took place at the Tops on Jefferson Avenue nearly two years ago illuminated problems plaguing Buffalo’s east side community for generations.
Just one block away on Jefferson, Open Buffalo has been working extra hard to uplift Buffalo’s east side community through leadership and advocacy, both before and after the racist attack claimed the lives of 10 people and injured three more.
“Our work around anti-racism really began during the since our founding, but it really grew in new and interesting ways. During the racial uprisings of 2020,” said Open Buffalo Executive Director Franchelle Parker. “We had white led organizations coming and saying, ‘I have a Black Lives Matter sign up in my yard, but I don't know what else to do. I need help. I understand the conditions that have been happening in Buffalo and across the nation. I want to help now.’ Open Buffalo took that as an opportunity. We met with over two dozen of our community partners, and we developed the Race, Power and Privilege anti-racism training program.”
The Race, Power and Privilege program is an anti-racist assessment and training program that helps organizations develop tools to address internal and external racial oppression.
“That training program is not just a [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] training. D.E.I. trainings are critically important. We need them. We need them in every institution,” Parker said. “But R.P.P. Race, Power and Privilege specifically looks to understand what is systemic racism. The conditions that existed in our community didn't just pop up. It wasn't just one bad law that happened or one bad event that happened. Systemic racism is really the foundations of this community. And R.P.P. seeks to have individuals understand exactly how did we get this way? How did the conditions in 14208, become the blackest zip code in upstate New York?"
Parker credits the Oshei Foundation its dedication to racial equity as an organization that truly doing right by the community.
“I look to institutions like the Oshei Foundation that has completely pivoted their investment portfolio,” she said. “That matters. And not sugar coating where the investments are going right, specifically saying we're addressing intergenerational wealth creation. And if we look at some of the issues that we're facing here on the east side, poverty is the root cause of that.”
Parker says more organizations following the Oshei example would go a long way in dismantling the generations of systemic racism and the problems that sprout from it.
