If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.Those are the words of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, spoken in 1960 to Bill Moyers, then a member of LBJ's staff, in Tennessee.
Donald Trump does not know that quote, but he knows about exploiting feelings of superiority (and the lack thereof) in poor and working-class white people. One week from tomorrow, on June 19, Trump will hold his first MAGA rally since March in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Both the date and place of this event are significant, especially as protests against police terrorism continue to grow throughout the US, and several cities pass new laws meant to curb police brutality, NASCAR bans the Confederate flag from its events, and statues of Confederate "heroes" are being toppled in many southern states.
June 19 is known to black Americans (and many others) as "Juneteenth", a celebration of the end of slavery. Observations of the day date back to 1866 and Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 47 of the 50 states.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the site of the worst incident of racial violence in American history, when a white mob burned hundreds of black-owned businesses and homes over a period of two days. An accurate death toll is not known, but historians estimate that as many as 300 black people were killed; 10,000 people were left homeless.
Tulsa Daily World, June 2, 1921 (from "Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921" (2001)):
Personal belongings and household goods had been removed from many homes and piled in the streets. On the steps of the few houses that remained sat feeble and gray Negro men and women and occasionally a small child. The look in their eyes was one of dejection and supplication. Judging from their attitude, it was not of material consequence to them whether they lived or died. Harmless themselves, they apparently could not conceive the brutality and fiendishness of men who would deliberately set fire to the homes of their friends and neighbors and just as deliberately shoot them down in their tracks.
The attack, carried out on the ground and from private aircraft, destroyed more than 35 square blocks of the district—at that time the wealthiest black community in the United States, known as "Black Wall Street".No charges were ever brought against anyone in connection with the destruction, theft, arson, torture, and murder committed during the riot.
More than 800 people were admitted to hospitals and as many as 6,000 black residents were interned at large facilities, many for several days. ...
The massacre began over Memorial Day weekend after 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, the 17-year-old white elevator operator of the nearby Drexel Building. He was taken into custody. A subsequent gathering of angry local whites outside the courthouse where Rowland was being held, and the spread of rumors he had been lynched, alarmed the local black population, some of whom arrived at the courthouse armed. Shots were fired and 12 people were killed: 10 white and 2 black. As news of these deaths spread throughout the city, mob violence exploded. White rioters rampaged through the black neighborhood that night and morning killing men and burning and looting stores and homes, and only around noon the next day Oklahoma National Guard troops managed to get control of the situation by declaring martial law. About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property ... Their property was never recovered nor were they compensated for it.
Many survivors left Tulsa, while black and white residents who stayed in the city were silent for decades about the terror, violence, and losses of this event. The massacre was largely omitted from local, state, and national histories.
A MAGA rally on that day in that place during this time in American history is no coincidence.
Donald Trump is far too ignorant to know that bit of history, but his speechwriter and senior policy advisor Stephen Miller is not.
Precedent was set for such a racist event back in 1980 when Ronald Reagan, another proud American white supremacist, launched his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That seemed like an odd choice of location until you realized that was the town in which three civil rights workers - James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City - were abducted and murdered on June 21, 1964.
Tom Sullivan writes:
If Reagan meant to send a thinly veiled signal to white southerners, Trump's Tulsa gambit screams "It's on!" to armed white supremacists itching for a race war.Trump is desperate. His net approval ratings have dropped 19 points in one month. He is frantically blaming everyone he sees for the mess he has created for himself. He has no idea what to do. But he knows he needs his MAGA rallies like a lifelong addict needs a fix.
Before the 2016 election, Trump observed, in a rare moment of self-reflection "I bring rage out. I always have."
Five months ago, no one could have imagined where the US would be right now.
The protesters and the SARS-CoV-2 virus are out of Trump's control and Election Day is a little less than five months away. As Trump continues to flounder, who knows where the US will be by then?
Also:
If you're looking to attend President Trump's rally in Tulsa next Friday, you must first agree not to sue him if you get coronavirus pic.twitter.com/4LJp9od3wx— Kevin Liptak (@Kevinliptakcnn) June 11, 2020
2 comments:
Two weeks ago, Randy Krehbiel of The Tulsa World reported:
Little is known of the two people most associated with the massacre. It's not even certain their names were Sarah Page and Dick Rowland.
Page was new to Tulsa and may have been as young as 15. According to one source, she had come from Kansas City, where she was in the process of obtaining a divorce.
Page disappeared on June 1 and no real trace of her has ever been found.
Various sources indicate Dick Rowland's name actually might have been John Rowland or Johnny Jones or something else entirely. In any event, he remained in the county jail overnight, protected by six deputies and Sheriff W.M. McCullough. Once the shooting started, Rowland was arguably the safest person in the city.
Prosecutors eventually dropped all charges against Rowland, purportedly at the written request of Page, and he, too, left town.
In the early 1970s, a relative said Rowland and Page had been romantically involved and reunited for a while in Kansas City before going separate ways.
Rowland, the relative said, had died in the Pacific Northwest.
More recent attempts to learn the pair's ultimate fates have been inconclusive.
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The way I read this is simple :
Dump wants a War .... or "anything" to distract from Covid
A racial war, a civil war, war with Iran, China, who cares ...... he couldn't care less
Dump 2020 : Not Everyone Died
Dump intends on changing that !
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