The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 was arguably the worst race massacre in US history. Yet it was so effectively whitewashed from history books that even eminent political commentators are confessing ignorance about it today.
Try as I might, I cannot recall even a passing reference to it during my school days – not even in the Black American History course I took in college.
Of course, this is hardly the forum to delve into the facts. But here in part is how President Biden shared some of them in A Proclamation on Day of Remembrance: 100 Years After The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which he issued from the White House on May 31:
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One hundred years ago, a violent white supremacist mob raided, firebombed, and destroyed approximately 35 square blocks of the thriving Black neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Families and children were murdered in cold blood. Homes, businesses, and churches were burned. In all, as many as 300 Black Americans were killed, and nearly 10,000 were left destitute and homeless. …
Before the Tulsa Race Massacre, Greenwood was a thriving Black community that had grown into a proud economic and cultural hub. At its center was Greenwood Avenue, commonly known as Black Wall Street. Many of Greenwood’s 10,000 residents were Black sharecroppers who fled racial violence after the Civil War. …
In the years that followed, the destruction caused by the mob was followed by laws and policies that made recovery nearly impossible. … A century later, the fear and pain from the devastation of Greenwood is still felt.
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As it happens, though, no less than three documentaries are now available to educate me better than any college course probably would have. They include Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre, which aired on The History Channel on May 30; Dreamland: The Burning of Black Wall Street, which debuted on CNN and began streaming on HBO Max on May 31; and Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten, which premiered on PBS on May 31.
I watched Dreamland last night. And so I’m going to end my humble tribute with one serious and one superficial observation:
With respect to the serious, I urge all Americans of good faith to beware. Because the reason that massacre happened 100 years ago is the same reason white folks in “red states” across America are trying to suppress the voting rights of Blacks and Hispanics today: A desire to maintain the prerogatives of white supremacy laced with a rabid compulsion to deny blacks their success out of jealousy.
Mind you, the ultimate showdown will come when Congress convenes in January 2025 to count the electoral votes and certify the presidential election of 2024. And what do these voter-suppressing, election-rigging MAGA idiots in red states think is going to happen if they attempt to present their contested electors? Do they think electors from blue states are just going to roll out the red carpet for their two-legged orange calf to return as president?
Civil War II: Red States vs. Blue States! And, trust me, just as Trump himself dodged the fight on January 6, no Trump will be among the idiots fighting this war for his cause either. Oh, and Biden, not Trump, will be Commander in Chief; so, in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, prepare to die, suckers. I presaged this looming war in my podcast episode, “Biden’s Foreign Policy ‘A-Team’ Is Failing Him,’ on May 15. But I digress …
With respect to the superficial, I say kudos to LeBron James and his partner Maverick Carter for producing this documentary. I’m not sure if it even qualifies to emulate Kobe Bryant’s Oscar for his animated autobiography. But this documentary clearly has far more socially redeeming value. It’s probably a lock for an Emmy at the very least.
Finally, when Biden visits Tulsa to mark this solemn anniversary today, he will be greeted by clarion calls to put US dollars (and many billions of it) where his White House proclamation is – in a word: reparations. But truth be told, the inter-generational debt America owes the Black victims of this massacre, and the millions of other Blacks who have suffered similar acts of systemic discrimination and death since the founding of this nation, amounts to trillions of dollars.
Because the amount of this debt is so astronomical, however, is no reason for America to refuse to even consider paying it. On the contrary, its ballooning nature looms as a categorical imperative for America to do so.
Ironically, perhaps it can be guided by the small steps Germany has been taking to pay reparations for historical wrongs, including everything from the Holocaust the Nazis committed in Poland during World War II to the genocide German colonial soldiers committed in Namibia during the early years of the 20th Century.
Pay up, America!
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