The Tulsa Race Massacre and Reflections for Today
This year marked the 100th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack committed against the people in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event, later called the Tulsa Race Massacre, resulted in hundreds of deaths, over one thousand homes, churches, businesses, and schools destroyed, and the homelessness of over 10,000 residents in an affluent area that had been created by the black community. During a time of segregation and systemic racism, having a beacon of hope for a marginalized group of people was an invaluable asset (this community was dubbed “Black Wall Street”). Yet, a mob used the false accusation of a young man raping a white girl as justification to burn down the progress that had been made in Greenwood.
On May 30, 1921, the culprits involved (backed by local police) were enraged by the situation that resulted from a brawl between white men who gathered outside of the courthouse where the young man was being held by police and black men who attempted to protect him. The adrenaline began to pump as the mobsters became interested in burning the whole community to the ground and killing any black people that they could find. This overtly racist act intensified with some airplanes flying overhead to hurl bombs below (although the degree of this is still a matter of debate, it is very likely that some destruction was reigned from the sky), but it appears that most of the damage occurred from fighting on the ground (including destruction through explosives and looting). The ironic part was that even though the white men who stormed the district were culpable, many black men and women were detained by the National Guard when order was restored.
It was also ironic that J. Edgar Hoover and his Bureau of Investigations and the subsequent FBI chose not to monitor white individuals and groups who were committing acts of violence against the black community, but the agencies did surveil notable black figures like Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King, Jr. (under Cointelpro, which was a deliberate campaign to stir fear among black leaders that they would be arrested for their activism). Under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, the FBI continued to target the black community by interpreting its authority to base its searches on race and ethnicity. After the Michael Brown incident in 2014, the FBI began to monitor, and even threaten, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters, and this led to a new program to target the “Black Identity Extremism” movement under the suspicion that black activists were committing violence against police officers. The protests after the Freddie Gray killing in 2018 even saw FBI air surveillance prioritized. Much of this surveillance was unjustified and unconstitutional, but the fact that black protesters have been disproportionately targeted makes it all that much worse.
Fast-forward to today, after the George Floyd protests, we saw an onslaught of police brutality against black protesters, sometimes with rubber bullets and arrests for violating curfew (as if the government can tell you what time of the day that you are allowed to protest). Although some of the BLM protesters did destroy businesses, trespass on federal courthouses, and capture several city blocks in Portland, the majority were peaceful. Yet, CNN and other news outlets capitalized on this by suggesting that one side of the political aisle was peaceful, while simultaneously and erroneously implying that the majority of pro-Trump demonstrators on January 6th were not. The media and government narrative currently is moving against right-wing groups (the DHS even went as far as to name those who disagree with the Covid narrative and do not believe that Joe Biden truly won the 2020 election as potential terrorists), and when the government favors one political faction over another and intimidates those who have a particular point of view by causing them to have to censor their speech for fear of retribution, the freedom of speech has been violated. Hopefully the party currently in power can understand that someday the tables could be turned and they could be the ones to transform into political enemies of the state, which is why this tit for tat targeting (whether based on race or political persuasion) is something that we should condemn, as we strive to treat all people equally in society.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.
On May 30, 1921, the culprits involved (backed by local police) were enraged by the situation that resulted from a brawl between white men who gathered outside of the courthouse where the young man was being held by police and black men who attempted to protect him. The adrenaline began to pump as the mobsters became interested in burning the whole community to the ground and killing any black people that they could find. This overtly racist act intensified with some airplanes flying overhead to hurl bombs below (although the degree of this is still a matter of debate, it is very likely that some destruction was reigned from the sky), but it appears that most of the damage occurred from fighting on the ground (including destruction through explosives and looting). The ironic part was that even though the white men who stormed the district were culpable, many black men and women were detained by the National Guard when order was restored.
It was also ironic that J. Edgar Hoover and his Bureau of Investigations and the subsequent FBI chose not to monitor white individuals and groups who were committing acts of violence against the black community, but the agencies did surveil notable black figures like Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King, Jr. (under Cointelpro, which was a deliberate campaign to stir fear among black leaders that they would be arrested for their activism). Under the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, the FBI continued to target the black community by interpreting its authority to base its searches on race and ethnicity. After the Michael Brown incident in 2014, the FBI began to monitor, and even threaten, Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters, and this led to a new program to target the “Black Identity Extremism” movement under the suspicion that black activists were committing violence against police officers. The protests after the Freddie Gray killing in 2018 even saw FBI air surveillance prioritized. Much of this surveillance was unjustified and unconstitutional, but the fact that black protesters have been disproportionately targeted makes it all that much worse.
Fast-forward to today, after the George Floyd protests, we saw an onslaught of police brutality against black protesters, sometimes with rubber bullets and arrests for violating curfew (as if the government can tell you what time of the day that you are allowed to protest). Although some of the BLM protesters did destroy businesses, trespass on federal courthouses, and capture several city blocks in Portland, the majority were peaceful. Yet, CNN and other news outlets capitalized on this by suggesting that one side of the political aisle was peaceful, while simultaneously and erroneously implying that the majority of pro-Trump demonstrators on January 6th were not. The media and government narrative currently is moving against right-wing groups (the DHS even went as far as to name those who disagree with the Covid narrative and do not believe that Joe Biden truly won the 2020 election as potential terrorists), and when the government favors one political faction over another and intimidates those who have a particular point of view by causing them to have to censor their speech for fear of retribution, the freedom of speech has been violated. Hopefully the party currently in power can understand that someday the tables could be turned and they could be the ones to transform into political enemies of the state, which is why this tit for tat targeting (whether based on race or political persuasion) is something that we should condemn, as we strive to treat all people equally in society.
Thank you for reading, and please check out my book, The Global Bully, and website.
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