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Episode details

World Service,21 May 2022,23 mins

The Buffalo shooting

BBC OS Conversations

Available for over a year

Once again, the United States is discussing race, guns and mass shootings after the killing of 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York State. On Saturday 14 May, an armed young man wearing body armour drove more than three hours across New York State to the city. The 18-year-old suspect, who is white, stopped at a supermarket in a predominantly black district and opened fire. Those who died were black. The crime is believed to be racially motivated. Host Ben James hears the reactions among those living and working in Buffalo. We also bring a sense of the conversations across the country. Two hosts from black-owned radio stations in Chicago and Pennsylvania reflect on experiences of racism and what it’s like to be black in the United States. One of the hosts, Solomon Jones from WURD Radio in Philadelphia tell us: “Where I feel unsafe is when I leave my community and if I go to a place that’s unfamiliar where I am the one that’s standing out as a black person. Because you have people who will kill you for nothing, other than you are black.” (Photo: Candles and signs are left at a memorial for victims at the scene of a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, U.S., May 16, 2022. Credit: Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

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