105 years ago this week, the Tulsa Race Massacre ended. It was June 1, 1921 and it started with a young Black man tripping and touching the ankle of a young white elevator operator. It ended with 10,000 Black families homeless, over 200 dead, millions and millions and millions of dollars in property damage. One of the last remaining survivors passed away in November of 2025.
Ms Viola Ford Fletcher died at 111 years old. She was seven the night it began 105 years ago, and she was 105 years old when they officially added it to the state curriculum in Oklahoma. (They originally added it in 2002, but didn’t create a comprehensive curriculum around it until 2019). You can read about her story in her own words. It’s a quick read, but worth it - Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.
Rosewood, a city in Florida, is burnt down just two years after Tusla. It started with a lie. Fannie Taylor, a white woman in Sumner, a nearby town to Rosewood, was stepping out on her husband. She was sleeping with a white man who assaulted her. She lied and said it was a Black man who had escaped a chain gang. The Sheriff and lynch mob tortured and killed Black men before destroying the entire town. White men from all over the state participated because of news organizations.
In reading a book about Rosewood, Like Judgement Day, I learned that many Americans in the 90s thought that we shouldn’t give reparations to descendants of enslaved folks because it was legal at the time. It lit me up truly, because we know as early as 1788, big Tommy Jefferson admits that slavery was a terrible practice. So while legal, our Founding Fathers and our Funcles knew it was wrong.
That said, neither of these events happened during slavery. Both Rosewood and Greenwood happened during my Great-Grandmother’s life and my Grandfather’s life. I bring all of this up to introduce another big lie that is pervasive throughout white America and that is, “so much of this ‘history stuff’ was so so long ago.” The more I talk about history, the more I run into this.
“Well it was so long ago.” And this is from all manner of white folks. First of all it wasn’t. Our country is only 250 years old this year. So quite literally - NOTHING IS SO SO LONG AGO. The Civil War in my family is five generations away. My mother was eight when the Civil Rights Acts were passed. Ruby Bridges has an Instagram.
And second, there is a real irony here, because while I hear, it was so long ago from all manners of white folks; some of the group screaming that everything was so long ago – is the same group saying that if white kids learn about race too early in their life, they’ll be traumatized.
Mind you, they’re also the same group screaming about how star spangled awesome the United States is and always has been. If the US is as amazing as you say it is, how come we can’t talk about our history?
It’s contradictions like this that make me fully understand the thesis of Dr Lassiter’s book “How I know White People are Crazy and other stories.” Because the more I think about it, the more I feel like I am going insane.
Why is this a lie that’s proliferating? We know why. It’s already mentioned, it’s to create a sense that things that happened long long ago, do not need to be accounted for.
No one needs to be held accountable. But the truth is, we a) need to hold the government accountable and b) MUST be vigilant as the historical cycle regenerates. AND C) if the schools aren’t going to teach proper history, we have to.
We have to step in to remind people what happened through Jim Crow, that it was true authoritarianism and that the cycle is regenerating. The Supreme COurt effectively dismantled a part of the Voting Rights Act just a few weeks ago, but why did we need it in the first place? Because another Supreme Court effectively dismantled the 14th and 15th Amendments after Reconstruction. 1896. Just 26 years after they were ratified.
The benefit of this lie is very similar to every other lie we’ve told. If white America believes that everything was so long ago, it’s so easy to create a scapegoat out of non-white America. That’s the fucking ticket. That’s always the ticket.
You can find more of me on Youtube (where long form drops every week), at The Foolish Optimist, or on Instagram.
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