Mathews describes his family and the community as still hurting, but processing the pain.
“It’s still raw. They are still just shocked. There is also a little bit of fear there. They said that they just can’t believe that people would target them because of the color of their skin, and that we are still living in a day and age where this is happening.
“But my mom’s a great lady of faith,” Mathews said. “She’s a praying woman. There’s hope. And I think what may have exacerbated it a little bit, is I came up on a Friday, and we had just had the shooting in Texas. It almost, in a weird way, retraumatized us.”
In Texas, Mathews is surrounded by additional pain after a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
“It was just a very hurtful week, but the Lord is able to heal. What the enemy means for bad, God can take some things and turn it, and bring some good things out of it,” Mathews said. “And just seeing the unity. The unity was there, and people helping each other. Folks hugging each other, sharing meals, praying together.”
His mother’s church, Mount Olive Baptist Church, hosted the final funeral May 28 for the victims of the massacre – 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, whose service was attended by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I would say that it really impacts people of color,” Mathews said. “To be targeted because of your skin color. We were born Black, we didn’t have a choice in that, that’s something we cannot change. And to be targeted because of the color of your skin is traumatizing. And that’s not just for us. That’s for anyone. That is really traumatizing, but Black Americans are extremely, we are a forgiving people, we are a praying people, and we are for unity, but it definitely impacts us. It impacts us.”
Mathews appreciates the multicultural response to the Buffalo shooting.
“There’s hope and there’s healing, and my entire ministry has been characterized by bringing people together. I just think on unity across racial and ethnic lines, and we just can’t let hate breed hate in us,” he said. “We have to believe in something different with the love of Christ. Be prudent, but at the same time, we can’t let this destroy our humanity.”
His mother has a solution for such frequent mass shootings and the subsequent trauma.
“This may sound over spiritual, but people need the Lord. She said people need to get back into the church, and not just physically,” he said. “My mom is like, folks need the Lord and people need to live for the Lord, because He will be the One to get all of that hatred out of us. She’s kind of blunt like that.”
This article originally appeared here.
