Emancipation Is Not Liberation: What Buffalo Taught Me About Dignity, Grief, and the Power of Narrative
By Luxorae, Cultural Commentator
Growing up in Buffalo, you learn community early. You learn who raised who. You learn which blocks hold memories, which corners hold history, and which families carry grief quietly because they’ve had to for too long.
Luxorae
I lost my brother here.
I lost friends here.
And like so many Black families in Buffalo, I didn’t just lose them to violence—I lost them again in the way their stories were told.
In this city, when violence touches Black families, the pain doesn’t end with the funeral. It often begins again when the headlines come out.
Instead of who our loved ones were, we are told who they weren’t.
Instead of compassion, we get context that feels like judgment.
Arrests. Charges. Bail status. Words that have nothing to do with why someone’s life was taken—but everything to do with how the public is taught to feel about it.
This pattern shaped my understanding of freedom early on. And it forced me to confront a hard truth: emancipation is not the same as liberation.
Buffalo Is Home—And a Mirror
What I’ve witnessed here in Buffalo is not unique to this city. But it is deeply instructive.
Buffalo is a place where Black communities are tight-knit, where loss travels fast, and where news coverage carries real weight. When local media frames our dead as suspects instead of sons, daughters, friends, or neighbors, it doesn’t just inform the public—it reshapes how our pain is received.
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) has publicly acknowledged that unconscious bias affects how victims and suspects are portrayed in news coverage, including reporting connected to Buffalo.¹ That matters, because it confirms what families here have felt for decades: something is off, and it’s not imagined.
This same framing happens in cities across the country—Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, Minneapolis—but Buffalo gave me the language to name it because I lived it here.
Civil Rights Did Not Give Us Narrative Freedom
We often celebrate civil rights as the finish line. But rights alone did not give us control over how our lives are valued.
True liberation means:
Our children are not defined by their worst moments.
Our grief is not treated as a morality lesson.
Our loved ones are not posthumously put on trial.
When media coverage repeatedly centers criminal history over humanity, it reinforces a dangerous idea: that Black lives require explanation before they deserve empathy.
Research on media framing shows that how stories are told directly influences public perception of blame, worth, and justice.² When Black victims are framed through criminality, it shapes how communities are policed, how violence is understood, and how compassion is rationed.
This is not neutral reporting. It is narrative power—and it has consequences.
What Liberation Could Look Like—Starting Here
This is not about silencing facts or avoiding hard truths. It is about responsibility.
If Buffalo—and cities like it—are serious about justice and healing, media must be part of that work.
Here is what change can look like:
Lead with humanity, always.
Who was this person to their family? Their block? Their city?End irrelevant criminal framing.
If it doesn’t explain the death, it doesn’t belong in the headline.Listen to families.
Give space for loved ones to speak before police narratives dominate the story.Invest in diverse editorial leadership.
Representation matters most where framing decisions are made.Acknowledge harm and correct course.
Accountability builds trust—especially in cities like Buffalo, where trust has been strained.
These steps don’t weaken journalism. They strengthen it.
Why I’m Still Speaking
Some may ask why I’m raising this now—why revisit pain that is years old. My answer is simple: because it’s still happening.
Because families in Buffalo are still watching their loved ones be reduced to bullet points.
Because the same patterns repeat, year after year.
Because liberation is not something we inherited—it’s something we have to finish.
I am speaking as someone shaped by this city, but I know this truth travels far beyond it.
Emancipation broke chains.
Civil rights opened doors.
But liberation requires dignity.
And dignity begins with how we tell our stories—especially when we no longer can.
References / Footnotes
National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
“NABJ Disturbed by Unconscious Bias Displayed in Buffalo Shooting Coverage.”
NABJ, May 2022.Entman, R. M. (1993).
Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.
Journal of Communication, 43(4), 51–58.
Dixon, T. L., & Linz, D. (2000).
Overrepresentation and Underrepresentation of African Americans as Lawbreakers on Television News.
Journal of Communication, 50(2), 131–154.
About Luxorae
Luxorae is a Buffalo-based author, artist, and owner of Luxorae LLC, Buffalo-based company focused on culture, strategy, and community-centered work, with a background social science Her writing examines power, land, institutions, and explores liberation, through a local lens.