Controlling the Lens of History: From Tulsa to the Capitol Mob

[Nevilledog]

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Just Security
@just_security
Domestic terrorists who carried out #TulsaRaceMassacre not only erased the harm to Black victims but also their own role in the Massacre.

@millerej_11 examines what it means to control the lens of history.

Part of our series on #Tulsa100 #BlackWallStreet

Controlling the Lens of History: From Tulsa to the Capitol Mob
Some of most vivid photographs are postcards made by white mob during Tulsa Massacre. Chillingly similar to Capitol rioters' social media postings.
justsecurity.org
9:05 AM · May 31, 2021

The centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre rightly celebrates the resilience of the Black survivors and their descendants, who were subjected to horrific acts of terror. However, one group of real people have been erased from history. The individual, identifiable rioters who made up the racist mob were never named and never brought to justice. The State’s failure to hold them accountable allowed them to deny responsibility, both individually and as a group, and eventually to deny the Massacre happened at all.

This ability to rewrite history, to suppress the largest, most bloody single attack on Black people in the United States, is an amazing act of power. Who tells the story of the Massacre continues to shape the contemporary response to demands for justice for the survivors and descendants.

The Tulsa Race Massacre’s precipitating event occurred when a white elevator operator falsely accused Dick Rowland, a young Black man, of assaulting her. However, the racial hatred that fueled the Massacre had long been stoked by local white demagogues. Rowland’s arrest would not have escalated had not the local newspapers incited the white rioters. Eventually, over the night of May 31st into June 1st, a mob of white Tulsans, many deputized by the police force, joined by the local national guard, along with sundry others, killed, burned and looted their way through 35 city blocks. The white rioters entered the homes and offices of the Black Greenwood community residents, some of whom fled their homes, others of whom hid in backrooms and attics while the white mob called on them to come out. Some of the survivors described the white people looting their houses, then urinating or defecating inside before setting fire to the building.

The Tulsa Race Massacre reverberated outside of Tulsa, affecting Black people across the country. Economist Lisa Cook recently demonstrated that the Massacre significantly impacted Black entrepreneurship across the United States. When the state and federal governments did nothing in the face of such violence, Black people lost confidence in the government’s willingness to protect their rights, resulting in a downturn in Black people filing patents. As but one example.

*snip*

[cilla4progress]

1. This theme - that the "winners" write history

is primary in Raoul Peck's new masterpiece documentary now showing on HBO: Exterminate All the Brutes.

Have you watched it yet, Nevilledog? I would love to discuss it with you and others here!

[Nevilledog]

2. Have not.....will look for it!