Shooting after shooting: How to handle consistent coverage of these traumatic incidents

‘We should not dehumanize the lives of Black and Brown and Asian folk’

On Saturday, 10 people were killed and three were wounded in a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

In Saturday’s attack at Tops Friendly Market, the suspected gunman was identified as Payton Gendron, of Conklin, New York, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Buffalo.

These incidents are helping to lead mental health issues, especially for those witnessing the horrific acts.

Related: Buffalo supermarket shooting: What do we know so far?

Psychologist Dr. Riana Elyse Anderson, from the University of Michigan, states she understands the range of emotions people feel, comparing how police have handled people of different races in different situations.

“When we’re thinking about the humanity of one person, the way that we’re watching someone be taken into custody and thinking about the ways we have seen the dehumanization of other people,” said Anderson. “Whether they are victims or suspects, we know that it’s not even the same the way that we’re talking about this man, this 18-year-old man who killed these people, but you compare that to Michael Brown, where he was called a man, but this suspect was called a teenager, a boy, right?”

Anderson recommends putting down the remote and phone.

“We need to have conversations with our children at the dinner table, in our schools, in our mentoring groups to let them know again that all lives have human value and that we should not dehumanize the lives of Black and Brown and Asian folk,” she said.

Read more: 10 dead in ‘racially motived’ mass shooting at Buffalo supermarket, suspect arraigned

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