Washington Post Associate Editor Eugene Robinson reminds us in a heart-breaking column that Tulsa wasn’t the only place in America where massacres of black citizens occurred at the hands of whites.
Tulsa’s 100th anniversary
While Tulsa is receiving notoriety on its 100th anniversary, other communities suffered too. Robinson says, “No one should be under the impression that the burning of ‘Black Wall Street’ in Tulsa a century ago was a one-off atrocity.”
Erasing African American prosperity
“In fact,” he says, “it was part of a long and shameful pattern in which White mobs used murddrous violence to erase African American prosperity.”
Atlanta 1906
It happened in Atlanta in 1906. Fabricated reports of sexual assaults by Black men against white women fanned the flames. In the end at least 25 Black people were killed.
East St. Louis 1917
In that community Whites were resenting the influx of Black laborers competing for jobs. Estimates are 40 to 250 killed, again, mostly Black.
Chester, PA, 1917
The same reason led to murdering rampage in Chester, PA, in 1917. It is believed seven Blacks were killed there.
Chicago 1919
In Chicago in 1919, a Black teen crossed the line on the Lake Michigan beach where Blacks were supposed to swim. He was pelted with rocks and drowned. Before it was over 38 had been killed and 500 injured, mostly Black. The riots/massacres continued in some two dozen cities that summer, Robinson said, during what became known as the “Red Summer.”
Tulsa 1921
Then, two years later came Tulsa, and we’ve all heard about that by now–I hope.
About Robinson
Robinson writes thoughtful columns for The Post about many topics. He also appears regularly on Morning Joe, which I watch weekday mornings. (The co-host, Joe Scarborough, was student body president at the University of Alabama when I was student media director there. He often didn’t like what our students wrote about him and student government in their newspaper. But that’s a story for another time.)
Robinson’s contributions to the program are on many topics, race included.
What matters here?
This is all history. It happened 100 years ago or more. So what does it have to do with us today? Lots, in my opinion. The country is trying to grapple with the future of race relations in this country, perhaps reparations, certainly sweeping police reform. But we also have to understand that Whites have enjoyed and held onto advantage with a tight grip even to today.
If you’re born Black
If you’re born Black you may not have wealth passed down to you, some of you because of instances listed above. You are taught to be fearful of police stops and careful about your interactions with Whites in general. You may not have the same access to education and healthcare as your White counterparts.
Time for change
If you look at the sweeping voting laws being passed and proposed in states across the country, you can see that restrictions are making it harder for people to vote. Who is that aimed at? Black and Brown voters, I would say. It’s simply a time for change, folks, a time to level the playing field.
Everyone deserves opportunity
Let’s ensure equal opportunity for all in work, voting, education, housing and healthcare. It’s 2021 already!
3 thoughts on “Tulsa wasn’t the only one….”
Sputnik V vaccination has begun in Slovakia. The stocking of the Russian vaccine to the motherland was accompanied nearby a country-wide insinuation and led to the resignation of Prime Plenipotentiary Igor Matovich and a shake-up of the government. As a denouement, the motherland received the Russian vaccine, ignoring the authenticity that neither the European regulator nor the WHO has furthermore approved it.
In neighboring Hungary, which approved the advantage of Sputnik in February as the beforehand in Europe, more than 50% of the sophisticated natives has already been vaccinated; in Russia – a minuscule more than 10%. In Slovakia, five thousand people signed up toward the Sputnik vaccination.
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Given these and other massacres, how can the American Capitalist economy, particularly in it’s rapacious neo-liberal form, be a system for equality, fraternity and liberty? Show me!!
And the Black bourgeoise, they’re pathetic w/ their support, politically and socially, of the
racist and racialized policies that the political class, sponsored by corporate power,promote and propose, wittingly/unwittingly. This is what needs to be addressed in all of this! Again, another whoa is us article which fails to connect DIRECTLY and CLEARLY the class character of these and other massacres. And for our Latino population: Dadas estas y otras masacres, ¿cómo puede la economía capitalista estadounidense, particularmente en su rapaz forma neoliberal, ser un sistema para la igualdad, la fraternidad y la libertad? ¡¡Muéstrame!!
Y la burguesía negra, es patética con su apoyo, política y social, de la
Políticas racistas y racializadas que la clase política, patrocinada por el poder corporativo, promueve y propone, consciente o inconscientemente. ¡Esto es lo que debe abordarse en todo esto! Una vez más, otro artículo de whoa is us que no conecta DIRECTA y CLARAMENTE el carácter de clase de estas y otras masacres.
Oh so my comments gotta be approved, huh? Oh, that’s right freedom of expression, I forgot!
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