Quote :

"Ninety-seven years ago today, the first bombs ever dropped on American soil were dropped on the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Ok. Greenwood - the most preeminent Black community in the United States at the time - was home to 10,000 residents and contained scores of Black-owned businesses, hotels, restaurants, law offices, doctors offices, movie theaters and more. Following an incident between a young Black man and a white woman in a downtown elevator, many of the nearly 3,200 Klan members in Tulsa and countless more white vigilantes armed themselves with firearms and marched North to Greenwood. They opened fire in the streets, set businesses and homes ablaze and dropped napalm-style bombs from fertilizer planes flying overhead. With the help of the national guard and the local police force, they arrested nearly 6,000 black residents and forced them into temporary internment camps in the Brady Theater and (now a popular Tulsa music venue) while their thriving community was systematically leveled. Many of those imprisoned were starved, beaten and killed in the same space the city hosts jubilant concerts in today. In just a few short days, Greenwood was completely destroyed and nearly every single one of its 10,000 residents were left homeless. While the official death toll from the Americans Red Cross at the time caps the loss of life at 300, some researchers estimate that the true number could rival that of Pearl Harbor and the September 11th attacks. The Tulsa Race Massacre (NOT “riot”) was one of the greatest terror attacks in the history of this country, and yet it is so frequently missing from the pages of our history books. When it is mentioned, it is given the false label of “riot” - implying that, somehow, the Black community of Greenwood was complicit in the attack. This is what whitewashed history does - it allows us to choose not to face the true horrors of our past, thereby absolving us of responsibility to rectifying it. If you live in Tulsa, I would encourage you to engage in the events happening tonight and tomorrow at Reconciliation park in downtown - and to attend the Police Accountability Forum from 9-2 on Saturday at the 36th St. North Events center. Regardless of where you live - it’s incumbent upon us (especially white people - who benefit from the same system that allowed this attack to occur, protected its perpetrators from legal action, precluded it’s victims from receiving compensation, and swept it from view of the masses for generations) to seek out the stories that have been purposefully hidden or misrepresented in order to continue perpetuating false, placated narratives of our country’s true past. Once we know - we need to act. Share your knowledge of our past with others. Learn about implicit biases and check your own consistently. Look at current events through a lens of systemic racism and call it out. Support Black owned businesses and businesses run by other communities of color - use your money as a tool to help right centuries of wrongdoings. Support organizations like the Greenwood Cultural Center who fight to preserve this history and restore the community of Greenwood. The story of Greenwood is not an isolated one. We have so much work to do as a country to undo a history of violence and oppression against communities of color — and it all starts with knowing. To learn more about Greenwood and Black Wall Street today, I would encourage you to follow “The Black Wall Street Times” on Facebook, Twitter (@BlackWallStTime), or online at http://www.theblackwallsttimes.com "

Put your username down in the appropriate list, I am honestly curious:

I never knew about this


I barely/vaguely heard about it


I know about it, but a whitewashed version ("riot") (where/how did you learn it?)


I know the ugly truth (where/how did you learn it?)


P.S. Not a dig at the US... most countries try to hide/soften their past (or current, in many hotspots today) ugly crimes (systemic) against minorities, including my country. Obviously, that's something that needs to change all over the world.

Thank you for reading

6/2/2018 11:29:20 PM

I never knew about this
Kickstand

6/2/2018 11:39:07 PM

Thanks

6/2/2018 11:53:22 PM

I know the ugly truth
justinh524

I read about it on the internet.

6/3/2018 12:42:24 AM

I never knew about this

zifnab

[Edited on June 3, 2018 at 12:53 AM. Reason : noob lol]

[Edited on June 3, 2018 at 12:54 AM. Reason : noob lol]

[Edited on June 3, 2018 at 12:55 AM. Reason : can't bold underline to save my life #noob]

6/3/2018 12:53:24 AM

^ lol brah you've been here ~5,000 days!

thanks y'all, keep'em coming!

I never knew about this
Kickstand
zifnab

I barely/vaguely heard about it


I know about it, but a whitewashed version ("riot")


I know the ugly truth
justinh524

6/3/2018 3:23:54 AM

it was a riot. a black mob opened fire on the white mob gathered at the police station, and everything went to shit from there. The police and national guard were doing just fine at protecting the kid up until that point.

6/3/2018 7:37:51 AM

I know about it, but a whitewashed version ("riot")
eleusis

6/3/2018 9:57:53 AM

OK, to be fair, I have not researched this other than just reading what I quoted.

It could have been a riot started by black people, or by both sides concurrently. Once I have time tomorrow, I will look into this deeply.

Having said that, even if it was a riot started by black people, that in no way justifies the collective punishment and acts of war that were meted out to black people by white mobs AND by the authorities, again, if those acts really happened the way as described in my post.

Stay tuned.

6/3/2018 9:35:14 PM

i thought this thread was about https://mashable.com/2016/01/10/1985-move-bombing/

6/3/2018 9:42:35 PM

^ same

6/3/2018 9:46:36 PM

Did you ever do any research and find out that that cute little Facebook post was a gross oversimplification of what happened?

6/3/2018 10:09:34 PM

opie don't play that.

he just goes to facebook and dailymail, gets outraged, then posts about it here.

6/3/2018 10:11:45 PM

It's bad when you and I are in agreement

6/3/2018 10:14:17 PM

agreed, but that's opie.

you ever try to catch a chicken? that's opie's relationship with facts. they constantly outmaneuver him.

6/3/2018 10:48:44 PM

I vaguely heard about it.

Then again, my family had some land stolen by whitey, so this stuff just isn't surprising anymore. See: Bruce's Beach (California)

This is (partially) why we can't have nice things.

6/4/2018 7:14:16 AM