last night i watched uh dreamland
um the burning of black wall street
uh cnn film uh produced by lebron james
and maverick carter spring hill company
um sunday night
i watched on the history channel
a documentary on the
tulsa race massacre
executive produced by russell westbrook
right uh saturday morning our friend
tiffany cross in the cross connection we
were live from tulsa
uh listen to tremaine lee's podcasts
on tulsa um
which are 100 years ago today
the black mecca that was greenwood that
was black wall street
uh wakanda
before we ever thought of such a thing
uh
right was being uh terrorized
and torched by a white mob
100 years ago right now at this moment
may 31st june 1st
1921. um
and you know it's uh it's at the
forefront of our consciousness
not just because of uh you know
thanks in large part to pop culture
whether it was the opening scene
of watchmen or lovecraft country
um a lot of people got introduced to
uh a story that was
literally and figuratively buried uh
the arrow yeah excavations in recent
years to
uh uncover survivors not survivors
excuse me uncover
victims who were um
dumped into mass graves throughout tulsa
and the thing about greenwood and black
wall street which was this
this this you know coin about booker t
washington i believe
as black wall street this this thriving
community of black prosperity in
in businesses and and culture
uh it wasn't it was destroyed not once
but twice
differently it was destroyed first
by uh a mob
of of of neighboring white people who
were looking for a reason
who were looking for a reason that
reason was
an amy cooper or or karen
in her time claiming that a young man on
an elevator a young black man in the
elevator assaulted him
assaulted her excuse me he was arrested
there was a lynch mob outside the
courthouse and the black people of
of of greenwood wasn't having it
and it led to
the coordinated attack
involving bombings from above
the use of airplanes the national guard
was called in and not to bring peace
white people were deputized this was
this was a government-sanctioned
attack right that nobody in
ensuing 100 years was held accountable
for
nobody was prosecuted nobody was charged
they got away with it and
we talk we've talked several times on
this show about about reparations and
and you know people still want to study
reparations um
the problem with reparations is that it
has to first come with an
acknowledgement
because this is this is an ongoing
criminal case this is a murder case
a mass murder case a massacre it has to
first come with an acknowledgement
after the acknowledgement is the
admission and that admission is not just
one of guilt
but an admission of uh benefit
and right now as you probably know
michael the wealth gap
the average black family has one tenth
of the wealth of the average white
family in america
that's not accidental that's not because
blacks don't work as hard that's not
because
blacks don't uh you know
have the ingenuity or the gifts or the
talent
no it's because it's that's the system
that's been put in place and been
protected at all costs whether it's may
31st
and june 1st 1921 or january 6
of 2021 and
to put a an amount on
how much was lost
it's it's impossible they they in short
they can't pay us back they can't pay
the citizens of greenwood back
they can't pay the descendants of the
greenwood
community and of the of the of those who
were killed
and terrorized and displaced they were
put in in intended communities they were
put
in internment camps
they can't pay them what they owe
because not just what they lost
in in present value but the interest
and the exponential amount of
generational wealth that could have been
created
but was stolen it was was was burned was
torched
uh you can't put a price tag on that you
can't you can't put an amount on that
they can america can't afford the
reparations it owes black people
for slavery and for not just you know
this race massacre but the countless
other race massacres that are waiting to
be researched to know stories that that
that
too often have been hidden from our
history books
and so you know i watched it i watched
it with my wife i watched it with my
kids
i watched all of all of my recorded them
uh i give so much
credit uh to the people who are who
continue to bring this story to life the
people who kept it alive
when it wasn't popular and now
the people who are taking that baton uh
you know with help from people like
lebron james and russell westbrook and
telling these stories
uh they need to be told my wife just
kept saying okay so what are we gonna do
about it what are they gonna do about it
um you know and she's right because
it's one thing to know but then okay how
are you going to make it right
as best you can to make it right
president biden's in tulsa today
uh unveiling or discussing a plan to to
to help close uh the wealth gap in
america between
uh white people and black people and
people of color
um yeah i mean i could keep going
i got i got a lot i mean the media's
role in it it's so it's so interesting
michael how so many things
haven't changed when you when when the
narrative around the race massacre was
a blame the negroes and negroes is the
clean one
but the negroes brought it on themselves
the unruly negroes brought it on
themselves
that's why greenwood and black wall
street had to be torched
and you think about how riot it has been
used and continues to be used
even though as dr king said a lot of
riot is the language of the
unheard the the the the way that
riots are positioned and presented
within right wing or republican
propaganda
to counter balanced or you know
a false equivalency or to justify the
terrorist attack that was
january 6. it's the same playbook the
only thing that's changed is the
technology
back then it was newspapers now it's
social media and the internet and
television
but it's the same type of things that
are perpetuated you know you're amy
people are calling the police you know
uh still calling the police your karens
and amy coopers are calling
or calling police in 2021 same way they
did in 1921.
and and and that was a spark that set
off the tinderbox that was greenwood
which was which was terrorized and
destroyed
by nothing more than resentful and angry
white people who did not want to
relinquish
their wealth and we're not happy
watching black people thrive
and so when it comes to reparations i'm
telling you i don't
they they can't a they can't afford it
and b this country this government
when you have a senator and even a vice
president suggesting that america is not
a racist country
i'll be damned this country was built
and maintained on racism
and through racism and continues to be
maintained through racism
whether they want to teach it in school
or not and they can't afford it number
one and number two
that money's got to come from somewhere
and i'm just not certain that america is
collectively willing to deep
reach down into its pockets and give to
black black americans or for that matter
native americans
what they actually owe because because
it's got to come from somewhere they now
just go all of a sudden
produce more money in order to pay
reparations
like you have to it is an
acknowledgement an admission and then a
relinquishment
of resources and that that that
one-tenth statistic i mentioned
that is not something that people are
trying
to give up anytime soon if at all
so i'll stop there at the risk of ball
hog and i'll stop there but
i spent my entire weekend that's good my
entire memorial day weekend
a holiday by the way that was uh created
by former slaves in case you didn't know
um but uh the
i spent my entire memorial day weekend
just consuming all the
uh greenwood tulsa race massacre black
wall street content that i could
and um i highly suggest that our viewers
or listeners do the same if you haven't
already
so hey you know listen you that that one
tenth
uh stat that you brought up let's let's
let's even drill down more on that
i don't know if you saw the boston globe
series spotlight series
on race in boston and one of the numbers
uh
the wealth the wealth a couple of years
ago yeah black families
yeah do you remember that number
remember what that number was
eight dollars eight dollars eight
dollars
because of lack of home ownership
you know boston has some of the and this
is the story a lot of
major cities across the country have
some of the poorest pockets some of the
poorest zip codes or
tracks neighborhood tracks uh in the
united states so it's very
it's eye-opening and it's alarming in
some ways
look i'm glad you brought this up
because people have been bringing it up
over the years
whether we're talking about oklahoma
residents
like the late great ralph ellison
like charlie christian jazz artist
from oklahoma to john singleton
uh addressing this in film to tony
morrison
addressing this in book form to
russell westbrook executive producer to
lebron james
and spring hill i'm glad we continue to
talk about it
i'm glad we draw attention to it and i'm
going to answer your wife's question
and it's not just with one answer but
i'm going to attempt to
offer one solution it's a very simple
one your wife says what do we do what
are we going to do
continue telling these stories and can
what are
they going to educate no it was what are
they going to do oh
no what are they going to do that's what
she meant okay whatever
like because all the people talking
about all this is it shouldn't have
taken 100 years
all the people saying all the right
things but like yo
yeah what are you going to do about it
okay so president
that's what i'm that's a great question
laying out his plans oh that's a great
question
all right i i stand correctly that is a
great question on us
i'm not saying it's honest yeah but i
would say for us
yeah for us i like the way the stories
continue to learn these stories and
continue to educate yourself
on these stories because it leads to a
thoughtfulness when it comes to our
decision making
what's the decision what are you going
to do going for what are you going to do
with schools what are you going to do
with your finances what are you going to
do
uh with any kind of social situation
well education helps inform your
decisions so i would just say a lot of
people
who don't know about this should do the
same thing
the same thing you did this weekend just
really
take a deep dive into this and and
there will be some questions that come
up after you watch these
after you watch these documentaries read
these books
and you'll have other questions of your
own try to answer those questions to
your own satisfaction
we all will have we'll all take
different things from it but try to take
something
that you see something an issue will be
raised try to answer that question
because i think it will just yeah but it
will make us better it will make us
better with more information but here's
the thing with more education
here's the thing yeah and i agree with
what you're saying however
i don't know however no but but i just
add to that though like
like i knew about the story not as
deeply okay
a lot like but even if you don't know
the specifics of the tulsa race massacre
still as a black person in america
you were born with something of an
education
on these issues what i'm saying is these
documentaries that i mentioned this
content that i mentioned
we aren't the target audience we're not
the people whose hearts and minds need
to be changed on these issues we're not
the people who need to be informed we
could always stand to gain more
information but the issue is we're
we're observing the centennial um
marking of of this race massacre again
one of many
but just the the worst because it cost
you know uh
upwards of or who knows who knows what
the real number is but the number that's
been thrown around 300 people
were were massacred may 31st june 1st
1921
countless amounts of uh of of
and again those are just the lives that
were lost who knew how who knows how
many lives they would have touched
how many other lives would have been
impacted if these thriving
businesses in this community were
allowed to continue and by the way you
brought up
home ownership in 2021 you got black
people that have white people standing
in for them
when their house is being um
is being sold to get a higher appraisal
that's happening now we're still being
denied the wealth that comes at home
ownership student debt
affects black people more than anybody
else so if if president buying this
administration they really want to go
all the way but it cancels student debt
but not debt debt but not to digress but
to go but going back to what you said
like michael we're still we're having
conversations and there are people right
now
fighting so that the history the real
history of this country is not taught
it's all connected with nicole hannah
jones
and her being denied tenure right at the
university of north carolina so
yes it's like telling these stories is
one part is one part of it
but people hearing it and by people i
mean white people
hearing it receiving it
understanding it and understanding like
how we got here as a nation
and how january 6 was nothing but a
continuation
of may 31st and june 1st 1921.
it's the same stuff different toilet
same song different verse
so you know like
we already know what time it is and what
time it's been
and so the only hope is that the right
people
were watching this and and watching it
in such a way where they're actually
interested in learning and their hearts
you know
we've seen the statistics about how
republican approval for black lives
matter
has has dwindled which it always does
happen in the 60s
right you know the civil rights movement
then happens now it always fizzles out
we talked about this at the one year
anniversary of george floyd's murder
it was like at the beginning we let
ourselves think that this was going to
be different
and there's a lot of states that have
passed you know uh police reform bills
we're waiting for the george floyd
justice and policing act to be passed
they missed their
manufactured deadline of the one-year
anniversary
because is this country ever willing
to go far enough to
come close to making this right
and the answer is no the answer is
unequivocally no
because making it right would close that
wealth gap
making it right would involve an
exchange of money
and resources that ain't nobody trying
to dig in their pockets and say well you
know what i really i really didn't get
this
through on my own i really got this
through a history of
of of systemic racism and terror
and and
that's not i i i'm skeptical
pessimistic that we'll ever see a day
where this is where
because that would that's inconvenient
the truth is inconvenient
and that's why people don't want to tell
it they don't want to teach it
or in some cases don't even want to hear
it
a lot of cases a lot of cases don't want
to hear it
and uh and a lot of cases don't want to
teach it too
you know we talk about the the country
being divided but that that's
that's an understatement that's not
really getting to the heart of
what the issue is uh i think there are
some people in the country who want to
hear
quite frankly mike is simple there are
some people in the country who want the
truth
they want the truth to make them
uncomfortable they want the truth to
inform and educate them
and there's some people who don't
i mean really if you just if you just
boil it down
there's the people who want the truth
and there's some people who are trying
to suppress it
uh ignore it ignore it or to go back to
the very beginning
of this conversation conversation bury
it
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