After the Buffalo slayings, parents struggle through talks with their children

Rev. Denise O. Walden-Glenn and Alia Williams each raise a fist— a symbol of solidarity and Black power— at the VOICE office in Buffalo, New York. (Alana Wise/NPR)

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store that police say was committed by an 18-year-old man radicalized by white supremacist ideology has left the western New York city torn and searching for answers.

For many parents, confronting the ideology espoused by the murder suspect means having difficult conversations with their children about the realities of violence and racism in the United States.