[MUSIC]
So, Joe Biden giving his speech
about the massacre in Tulsa is I
think a pretty important at least
political part of really
making sure that America has
to reckon with it.
As we talked about less than a week
ago on the show in popular culture,
there have been multiple
depictions of what happened
in Tulsa including in Watchman,
and in Lovecraft country recently.
Those two shows have done more than
the entire public education
system has for a century, basically
to teach people about that.
I'm just in case you have missed
the recent conversation about it.
On May 31st, 1921, a White mob
descended on Black Wall Street,
a prosperous
Black neighborhood in Tulsa.
Over the next two days,
they murdered more than 300 people,
burned down 40 city blocks and left
10,000 Black residents homeless.
A mass grave that may contain
the remains of the victim
has recently been discovered.
Survivors have been petitioning for
reparations for decades.
And that violence started after
the arrest of Dick Roland,
a 19 year old Black shoe shiner who
was accused
of assault against Sarah Page, a 17
year old white elevator operator.
Accounts vary about what happened,
but a common theory suggests Mr.
Roland tripped and
grabbed onto the arm of Ms. Page
while trying to catch his fall.
She screamed, and
he ran away, according to
the commissioner report.
Regardless of how it started,
though, it resulted in a bunch of
White people grabbing guns and
murdering hundreds of people.
In what would be described, well,
it was described and it often
wasn't described as a riot.
Wasn't a riot, it was a massacre.
It was targeted destruction
of a wealthy Black area.
That's what it was.
>> It wasn't random White folks.
It was random White folks that were
taking part, but it was backed by
the state in the system and
the authorities took part in it.
>> Yeah. >> That's part
of the system.
>> Exactly.
And thankfully, now that people
are talking about Tulsa,
they're also acknowledging that it
is not a one off.
It's not the only horrible thing
that's happened.
Actually saw Brooke Thomas tweeted
out a thread talking about others
say where you talk about any of
these in school.
Honestly, maybe we were talking
about Tulsa, I really doubt it.
I don't remember ever
being taught about that and
certainly not about these others.
But we do want to at least
briefly allege these others.
So common tweeted out this map
of different massacres, just so
many over so many years.
There is, this history is not far
from you and
a significant part of America.
Wherever you are, it's not far.
So let's talk about a few.
In Elaine Arkansas in 1919, well,
that was a bad summer.
The Red Summer of 1919,
dozens of racist attacks and
massacres.
One of the worst was in Elaine,
in which at least 200 Black
farmers and
their families were slaughtered.
Farmers had recently unionised and
were planning to bypass the unfair
sharecropping system.
By the way, just for Tulsa and with
this, you can't miss that there's a
massive economic component to this.
This is not just.
Definitely racial, yes.
But it's economic as well.
200 Black families, farmers and
their families.
That's right on the level of
Tulsa Jr. and I don't hear
that talked about ever.
>> Ever no, no and again,
that people who do know about Tulsa
which again, I didn't learn in
school, I have learned later, but
even after I learned about that
know the numbers of all
these different ones and
specific instances and
things that triggered them.
No, no, I didn't know about all
these either.
You know about a few of them here
and there, but
this is the whole point.
Now it's 2021, in this age of
information we've been in for
a while now, and before that,
If it wasn't taught in schools,
put in books by the powers that be,
who really tells you that?
You get told that by the people who
experienced it would tell
their kids.
So then he'll have to
tell their kids.
That's how people knew about it.
It was put in some other books that
people wrote and put in, but
it definitely wasn't mandatory
education.
So you to learn about your country.
It just wasn't and it still isn't,
and this fight continues.
>> Yeah, there's best the best in
Twitch is like I grew up in Tulsa,
we were talking about the Trail of
Tears but not about what happened
in Tulsa, even being there.
Let's talk about a few others.
So Ocoee, I believe that's correct
pronunciation.
I apologize if I'm
mispronouncing it.
In Florida, back in 1920.
When local Black men and
women attempted to vote, White mobs
responded by burning a Black church
and killing at least six people,
some say the death toll
was more like 60.
Some survivors claimed bodies were
dumped in a mass grave,
as in Tulsa.
Ocoee officials have made no
attempt to investigate the claim.
Although city officials did
apologize and installed
the memorial plaque in 2020.
It was the worst instance of
Election Day violence in American
history.
And that feels much like Tulsa.
Just pretend that it didn't happen,
refuse to look for information,
hope that you wait long enough that
the information will disappear.
And finally, in Rosewood,
Florida in 1923, will finally for
this segment but as you can see in
the map that commented tweeted out,
there are many of these worthy
of investigation.
Rosewood was a successful Black
town in the Florida pine woods
until it was burned to the ground
by White mob seeking revenge for
the supposed assault of
a White woman.
At least six people were killed,
perhaps more.
Survivors waded through swamps and
their nightclothes to escape.
A 1994 law allowed descendants of
Rosewood residents to attend state
colleges tuition-free,
the first example of a legislative
body in the United States giving
reparations African Americans.
And every one of those dots and
probably many more in that map we
showed you is at least as horrific,
worse than so many other historical
incidents that we do learn about.
But the things that we, that
the status quo, the powers that be
have chosen to allow us to learn,
reinforces certain narratives.
Other historical events which might
undermine those or teach us other
aspects of who we are socially,
culturally, economically,
in terms of our
government are not talked about.
>> Yeah, this so.
>> Thankfully,
that's changing a little bit.
>> If you've succeeded in allowing
the minority of people and
not just based off of race minority
of humans, Americans in this
country to learn about these
things, then you have to support
the majority of Americans who were
like, what are they talking about?
Race, riots, and massacres and
state sponsored executions of
people just based on their race and
where they're living and
how they're thriving.
That doesn't happen in America.
I never heard about that.
Yeah. >> And the majority people
because we made sure that they
didn't learn about that,
their starting point is,
this sounds like a fantasy.
This never happened.
I didn't learn about it.
Because we have this utmost trust
in our education system to teach
people and teach us the reality of
the situation.
And if again, we go back to, hey,
if you don't agree with it or
if you push back against what we
were taught and how we were taught,
you're not an American.
Not the way we did it
was an American.
If you just push back against what
it is because now you know reality,
that's an American and it makes
people then recoil again and
go, I don't want to be called
an American, let me make sure
that I just shut up.
It's a playbook.
And it's a tired playbook.
And we've seen it a million times,
but it still works on so
many people.
>> Yeah, there was one month final.
I mean, there's so much obviously
we can talk about one final comment
purely she acknowledged that almost
all of these are the excuse
it's given is it's about an assault
of a White woman.
Points that like what percentage of
the White men that participated in
those burgers mobs habitually beat
their wives?
Just constantly.
Beat their wives, rape
their wives when they wanted to.
Yeah, they care about assaults
against White women.
That's what's really
motivating them.
Not racism, not economic, fears and
jealousy of successful areas.
They're really worried about women
being violated in some way.
[MUSIC]