An American History Anniversary (guest post)

The American history we don't know.

The American history we're not taught.

The American history we don't want to know.

BLACK WALL STREET - Today is the 94th anniversary of the Race Riot and Bombing of Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma, May 31st, 1921.Read The Article: You do know that Black Wall Street was rebuilt by the Black residents after the bombing took place in 1921. They rebuilt it with their own money and got no government support.

"After the riot, black Tulsans, who were living in tents and forced to wear green identification tags in order to work downtown, still managed to turn the tragedy into triumph. Without state help, they rebuilt Greenwood, and by 1942 the community had more than 240 black-owned businesses.

"If we did it once we can do it again.

http://www.theroot.com/…/greenwood_oklahoma_from_the_black_…

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And in our national history, it's not that isolated an incident, either, this Tulsa, Oklahoma killing and murder. Don't think for a moment that it is.

Confirmed: Still "open season" on black males in America

Let's not kid ourselves. The title, above, is precisely what the jury and their verdict confirmed last week in the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial, like it or agree with it or not.

It's been made clear once again, shoot a black male in America and chances are extremely good you will not only get away with it but not spend any time in jail whatever.

Forget that Mr. Zimmerman was told by the police to not tail the stranger in the hoodie:

Police dispatcher:  "Are you following him?"

 Zimmerman:  "Yes"

 Dispatcher:  "Okay. We don't need you to do that."

Put that out of your head.

All that matters is that it has been proven, once again, that a black male's life in our society still, to this day, has precious little value.

Douglas Blackmon, in his important, revelatory book Slavery by Another Name pointed out how, after the Civil War--and for far too many decades--black men in the South could be and were, repeatedly arrested for doing nothing more than walking in very public areas.  If, at time of arrest, they couldn't prove they were gainfully employed, which was not uncommon at all, of course, they were not only arrested but found "guilty." To make matters far, far worse, they were not only put in jail but then sold--seriously, sold--by the jail to corporations for their work.

If you didn't know this, it doesn't surprise me.  Far too many Americans know far too little of our nation's own history and far less than that, of course, about black Americans and their history.

So along with being discriminated against and lynched and held down socio-econonically, they were also treated like this, as I just described.

Keep in mind, too, the numbers and ratios of black Americans that are in jails now, and have been for far too many decades, showing our justice system incarcerates black men at far, far higher rates than white males or other minorities.  Just a few of the very factual statistics:

• A black male born in 1991 has a 29% chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life.2
• Nearly one in three African American males aged 20–29 are under some form of criminal justice supervision whether imprisoned, jailed, on parole or probation.
• One out of nine African American men will be incarcerated between the ages of 20 and 34.
• Black males ages 30 to 34 have the highest incarceration rate of any race/ethnicity.

I'll stop with the statistics there.

Suffice it to say, as so many have so rightly pointed out, this society and our social and economic systems are slanted or tilted or worse, against the black male in America.

What's great is that we get to blame it on them, too.

Just as happened just now, with Trayvon Martin.

Turns out he was guilty.

Links:  Statistics of incarcerated African-American males 

Jail Inmates at Midyear 2009 - Statistical Tables

The Impact of Incarceration on Wage Mobility and Inequality

Slavery by Another Name | PBS

Too many Americans don't understand the continuity

 

If you don't understand this line of thought, check out the program on Douglas Blackmon's

Slavery by Another Name, after his book of the same name.

 

Link:  Slavery by Another Name | PBS

American History and why we need a Black History Month

 

That's why.

White people

White people in general but especially wealthy white people in America
.

Please make sure you watch this tonight

We need to know our history. This is part of the United States. We owe it to one another. I think a question needs to be asked. That is, could not, is not the current, modern day situation of the men in African-American families not being around for so many of their wives/girl friends/mothers of their children, possibly, likely an outgrowth, then, of all these black men having been taken, arrested and imprisoned under false pretenses from the Civil War until after World War II? I think the possibility is there. Side note: this is why we so badly, sorely need PBS in this country. If it weren't for PBS, we wouldn't get stories like these. Links: http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLSJbdGs8DA&feature=related; http://youtu.be/FY0GZ46IgDg; http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/blog/sneak-preview-slavery-another-name

Some history of Black History Month

Watch this, come Monday, February 13

I can't implore you enough to watch this television program, Monday, February 13 on PBS. It is "Slavery by Another Name", based on the book by Douglas A. Blackmon. It's too important. I think most Americans think they know our history. But we don't. We need to know what happened. We need to know how we got here. This is a start. Finally, I think a question needs to be asked. That is, could not, is not the current, modern day situation of the men in African-American families not being around for so many of their wives/girl friends/mothers of their children, possibly, likely an outgrowth, then, of all these black men having been taken, arrested and imprisoned under false pretenses from the Civil War until after World War II? I think the possibility is there. This also is yet one more example of just exactly why we, as a nation and as a people need PBS. No one else would tell this story. Links: http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLSJbdGs8DA&feature=related; http://youtu.be/FY0GZ46IgDg; http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/blog/sneak-preview-slavery-another-name

The very racist United States of America

Let there be no mistake.

We can't pat ourselves on our collective backs any longer.

First, there was Douglas Blackmon's book, "Slavery by Another Name," out last year, that received a Pulitzer Prize last week, about the United States true and until now, ignored and really, unknown history of a second kind of slavery for African-Americans after the Civil War.

There was untold cruelty, punishment, unfounded incarceration, what could easily be described as torture, rampant, sanctioned discrimination and even murders, all passing under the eye of local and Federal government. And it lasted from after the Civil War until deep into the middle of the 1900s.

Now, the country's Supreme Court is considering throwing out the Voting Rights Act of 1964 because parts of it only apply to what we understood was always known as the more racist "Deep South."

What a travesty.

And in Missouri?

Our Republican representatives are trying to push through a constitutional amendment that would require a government-supplied photo identification in order to vote.

Gee whiz, to use a phrase.

Could we get more "Jim Crow" about voting and disenfranchisement?

Clearly, this is an attempt to make it more difficult for the poor, minorities and the elderly (read: Democrats) to vote, let there be no doubt.

So on both the national and local/regional level, the conservative, clearly Republican groups are trying there hardest to make discrimination and disenfranchisement the law of the land.

It's pitiful.

It's pathetic.

It's sad.

It's tragic.

It's brutally unfair and should be made clear this is what's going on.

Ask yourself--why don't we vote on Saturdays?

Wouldn't that make sense? Wouldn't it be a great deal easier to get large groups of people in polling booths than how we do it now?

And the answer is, unequivocally, resoundingly, yes.

We don't vote on Saturday because the powers that be don't want us all voting.

These national and state attempts to change these laws are at least partially, if not completely, for one of them, racist in their attempt, let there be no doubt.

We are the racist United States of America and we should be far better than this.

Links to stories:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103610184
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kbia/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1499514§ionID=1
http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/