On Saturday, May 14, our country witnessed an act of racial terrorism in Buffalo, New York. A man entered a grocery store with the intent to kill others based on the color of their skin.

The United States has a long history of racial terrorism, including the massacre that took place in our own community in 1921 and decimated the lives of the thriving black community in Tulsa. These devastating acts of vigilante violence are perpetrated against Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color to further ideological goals embedded in racism.

While many will be identifying the need for further gun controls and other legislative actions, our call to the legislators should be to collectively address these acts of racial terrorism with the same fervor of any other acts of international or domestic terror that occur. Instead of seeing these incidents as singular incidents, we need to address the collective and growing movement of attacks that we have seen over the past decade.

Can we as a nation stand collectively and pledge to fight these acts of terror together so that no one has to fear going for a run or attending a grocery store, a spa, a school, a place of worship?

The legislature has already begun to act, passing HR 350 – the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 with wide-spread bi-partisan support. Now it is up to the Senate to ensure that this passes, and this act is set to effectively address racial terrorism. Now is our time as a community to come together for the safety of all Tulsans.

Reach out to our Senators to support the passage of the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, and to ensure Congress is making a stand against racial terrorism.

Senator James Lankford: (202) 224-5754
Senator Jim Inhofe: (202) 224-4721

Together, we can ensure all of our neighbors are safe.
Julie Davis
YWCA Tulsa CEO