'Let's not tie it to skin color': Oklahoma superintendent says racism not to blame for infamous Tulsa massacre

dantheclamman@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 208 points –
'Let's not tie it to skin color': Oklahoma superintendent says racism not to blame for infamous Tulsa massacre
rawstory.com
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There's no evidence that it happened due to racism... As long as you ignore every single fact about what happened there and the mountains of evidence showing that it was based on racism.

As an Oklahoman it's why it's called the Tulsa RACE Massacre. Because it was 100% about race.

But how do you know?

Because we have folks who lived through it still alive along with relatives and they all say it was about race.

Also if you look at the cause and the reason behind it you can know without a doubt it was ALL about race.

Pfffft, next thing you'll tell us is that the civil war was about slavery just because just about every secession document stated as much.

Matter of fact I believe it was about states rights. You know the right to own black slaves.

This is a common misconception.

The south didn't actually like states rights, and expressly forbid confederate states from ever banning slavery. All because Northern States chose to ban slaver in an ad hoc manner.

I was hoping my sarcasm was evident. What I posted is essentially what this person is doing - ignoring the mountains of evidence and facts of the situation all of which point indisputably towards it being about race. Then, having ignored all that, they cast doubt on it being about race.

It's a typical tactic of the right. Ignore all the overwhelming evidence in a situation and then, once that's done, declare that the conclusion obtained from all that evidence is invalid because "there's no evidence for that."

I saw your sarcasm was just pointing it out the same way. Our local right wing network even calls it the Tulsa Race Massacre. And they love Trump and love whitwashing the news.

But as a Tulsa news station they are at least smart enough to call it what it is.

Hi, Tulsan here. Raised in this city as long as I can remember.

Only in the last few years has the Tulsa Race Massacre entered mandatory curriculum, I didn't hear about it until college. When I did hear about it, I also heard that it was purposely censored and historical records of newspapers were missing from libraries and the like. All these fuckers do is deny and pretend bad things didn't happen.

It's our own Tiannamen Square. To reiterate, it's the Tulsa Race Massacre. That has never been disputed. They wanted to lynch a black man and destroyed countless black homes. Please keep talking about this race massacre whenever relevant so that we don't forget it and let the republican disinformation machine claim another casualty.

I grew up in Idaho, I was a grown ass adult when I learned about it, stumbled into it really.

I found out about it because of the black history museum in Washington DC. I knew about some of the events that happened, but had a make eye opening experience going through that museum (And the Native American museum).

My highschool history classes 1000% glossed over 20th century racism and oppression. It was like "the civil war happened, then the civil rights movement made everything hunky dory, the end".

I stupidly thought racism was just something in our distant past. Antiquated ideas no longer here. I was a naive idiot.

Given the intentions of Ryan Walters for Oklahoma schools, this might be as good of a place as any to mention the Greenwood Rising museum, opened in Tulsa in 2021 for the 100th anniversary of the massacre. It's an absolutely fantastic place.

From talking with people who went through the OK public school system, this history hasn't really been given much attention even prior to the latest shenanigans. It boggles the mind to think that thousands of black residents of Tulsa were rounded up and interned around town, and the incident wasn't even included in the state curriculum for 80 years.

Oklahoma as a state only makes sense if the citizens don't know the history of it. The entire country is built on stealing shit from people of color, but the looting and pillaging of Oklahoma is such recent history.

Greenwood Rising Museum

Thank you for mentioning it, I will have to go check it out sometime

The problem is not just his statement. It’s that he’s given a forum to disseminate it instead of being laughed into shame. We don’t ask cannabals what condiments go best with humans.

Another lying GOP bigot, but I repeat myself.