Buffalo, New York, has long been known as a resilient city of “good neighbors.” From our annual snowfall totals to our sports teams, Buffalonians know how to stick together in challenging times. Many of us are struggling to dig out of the past year fraught with crises of epic proportions.
Nearly two weeks ago, our city was buried under nearly six feet of snow with 70-mph sustained winds at times. More than 30,000 homes were without power and heat for days. Residents complained via social media that the city government failed to adequately prepare for the storm. There was minimal official communication; no updates were made on the city’s website, very few social media posts included directives or updates, and only two warming centers were open in the city limits.
As this once-in-a-generation storm garnered local and national media attention, the focus was seemingly not on recovery efforts nor resources available to residents — but about “looting.” While 30 of our neighbors succumbed to the storm as a result of failed leadership, the mayor of Buffalo said in a press conference “I told you,” and that people struggling to survive were “the lowest of the low.” Resources that should have been used to rescue our most vulnerable and stranded motorists were spent on chasing down petty thefts and nonviolent crimes. After the storm passed, suburban streets and grocery stores were quick to open, but city streets waited days to see a plow.
After the racist massacre on May 14, 2022, all the talk was about racial disparities on the East Side of Buffalo. After the storm, we again we were reminded of our resilience and how those disparities remain unresolved.
Signs with “Buffalo Strong” on them still adorn dilapidated buildings and strangers who give gentle smiles wear the slogan on t-shirts and hoodies. However, not much has changed on the East Side. The data have not yet been released, but anecdotally, Black people on the East Side bore the brunt of this storm, just as we did during the pandemic and with any other crisis this city faces. The aging housing stock, food insecurity and concentrated poverty created conditions of desperation for many and death for others during the storm. Black people represent about 13 percent of the population of our county, yet accounted for more than half of the deaths resulting from the storm.
Once again, mutual aid networks, faith-based organizations and community groups came together to deliver vital food and supplies in the aftermath. Individuals braved the treacherous weather to perform wellness checks on neighbors and opened their personal homes as warming centers. That is the Buffalo I know and love. Unfortunately, we are faced with the reality that the people we keep electing to lead the city not only fail to rectify the conditions that created a segregated, impoverished Buffalo; but they are the ones who created it, and they are the ones who maintain it. My neighbors and the people who make this city livable for one another are “Buffalo Strong.” The elected officials who mishandled this storm (and so many other things) are “Buffalo Wrong.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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