“The result was the killing of 237 African Americans.
None of the perpetrators—participants in mass murder—answered for their crimes. No one was charged, no trials were held, at least not of those who had killed blacks.“
The Red Summer of 1919 still is one of the longest seasons of domestic terrorism in the US that goes unremarked for most.
My grandfather had kin in Elaine Arkansas. He never got to meet them (they died in the riots), but he told me that the stories about what happened is part of why he raised his family in the North. Chicago had race riots that year too, but Elaine is considered one of the worst in history. In part because they literally tortured survivors to get them to testify against each other.
In the 16 years of education I’ve had in North Carolina so far, I never once learned that the only successful coup in US history was in Wilmington, NC in 1898, when white supremacists overthrew the pro-civil rights fusionist local government to put a racist Democratic government in place, killed countless people, terrorized black communities and whites who were sympathetic to them, burned down the building of the state’s only black newspaper, and drove over 2,100 black people out of the city for good. It was never mentioned once.
You cannot challenge racism, on this level, by being nice to and reaching out to white supremacists. Their entire ideology revolves around dehumanizing us. It just does. not. work.
You cannot fight fascism by prioritizing the feelings of fascists and letting them think they’re safe around you. You don’t “get them on your side”. Because treating them kindly and respecting them, gives them your silent approval and access to those of you who are way more vulnerable than you are and who cannot afford to feel safe enough to “debate” with these monsters.
Our humanity is not a question or a debate topic, and by giving these people a platform you legitimize their views and help spread them to a larger audience.
Then… How did it work for this guy?
They shot him in the fucking head.
Say that shit again!
They shot him in the fucking head.
They shot him in the fucking head.
They shot him in the fucking head.
They shot him in the fucking head.
The idea that MLK was ‘nice’ to white supremacists is also just historical revisionism @kuurihaunt.
He was sent death threats. The FBI considered him dangerous. People assaulted and murdered many of his followers. White America thought he was too confrontational and not appeasing enough to the sensibilities of whites. He was considered disruptive and an “outside agitator.” He was not a beloved man. He was hated and despised.
His protests came with the risk of being brutalized or killed by police or vigilantes. He decried the white moderate for caring more about order than justice. He refused to condemn riots, ‘the language of the unheard,’ because of how violent America was to Black people. Despite their differences, Malcolm X offered him protection and self-defense. Even though he was committed to nonviolent resistance, which meant breaking the law, disrupting traffic and yes – willingly opening yourself to being brutalized, he was more complicated than you give him credit.
The United States hated him and for his troubles he was killed.
He was not the caricature of nonviolence you think he was. Read a fucking book.
It worked for Nelson Mandela,
Didn’t it? If he hadn’t forgiven people (which shows he was such a good man, because I wouldn’t have forgiven those people if I were him), apartheid would never have ended
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for being part of an anti-apartheid militant communist organization.
this post gets sadder and sadder tbh
… Okay, I know that we’ve spent a lot of effort remaking MLK into an inoffensive “feel-good” figure who beat racism by just being so gosh-darned nice, but who’s clueless enough to think Nelson Fucking Mandela stopped Apartheid by being friendly at it?
He was an activist who inspired millions to fight for their rights. He knew what was wrong with our country and risked his life to help his people achieve equality. In the society where black were treated like animal he did everything possible to change this. His brave soul, his will and courage changed the history of America , changed the people. He made us believe we can win this war. He payed for it with his life. He will always be remembered.
I was told by my professors that Kitty Genovese was a 28-year-old unmarried woman who was attacked, raped, and brutally murdered on her way home from her shift as manager of a bar. I was told that numerous people witnessed the attack and her cries for help but didn’t do anything because they “assumed someone else would”. Nobody intervened until it was too late.
Now… is it likely that people overheard Kitty’s cries for help and ignored them because they thought someone else would deal with it? Or, perhaps, did they ignore her because they knew she was a lesbian and just didn’t care?
Maybe that’s not the case. Maybe it was just a random attack. Maybe her neighbours didn’t know she was gay, or didn’t care.
But it’s a huge chunk of information to leave out about her in a supposedly scientific study of events, since her sexuality made her much more vulnerable to violent crimes than the average person. And it’s a dishonour to her memory.
RIP Kitty Genovese. Society may only remember you for how you died, but I will remember you for who who were.
this was one of the first lessons I had in psych too and we were never told about this either nor was it in any of the reading materials
I never knew this.
I also never knew this about Kitty Genovese, but I do know that, in fact, many of the dozen (not thirty-eight) people who witnessed some part of the attack (which took place after 3AM, on a chilly night in March when most people’s windows were closed) tried to help in some way.
One shouted out his window for the attacker to leave her alone, which did successfully scare the man off temporarily.
Another called the police but, seeing her still on her feet, said only that there had been a fight but the woman seemed to be okay.
And when Kitty Genovese was finally attacked in a vestibule where she couldn’t be seen from outside, Karl Ross, a neighbor, saw what was happening but was too frightened himself to go to her rescue–so he started calling other neighbors to ask what he should do. Eventually one of them told him to call the police, which he did, and the woman he called, Sophie Farrar, rushed out to help Kitty even though she didn’t know whether the attacker was gone.
Kitty Genovese died in the arms of a neighbor who tired to help and comfort her while they waited for the police and ambulance to arrive. Kitty was in fact still alive, although mortally wounded, when the ambulance reached the scene.
The man who saw the final stabbing? Who panicked and called other neighbors first instead of the police? The man who said, infamously, that he “didn’t want to get involved” because he was reluctant to turn to the police for help? He was thought to be gay himself. He was a friend of Kitty and Mary Ann’s. After being interviewed by the police he took a bottle of vodka to Mary Ann and sat with her, trying to comfort her.
So, no. I don’t think the evidence indicates that Kitty Genovese’s neighbors let her die because she was a lesbian, because Kitty Genovese’s neighbors tried to help.
(Also, going by the content of the murderer’s confession, it was indeed a random attack.)
how on EARTH was this “scientifically” studied but the details gotten so wrong and the wrong as hell conclusion published and taught in schools?!?!?! where were those scientists observation skills?! on vacation?!
How to take facts and turn them into an urban legend that gets taught in schools: Make a bad made-for-t.v.-movie about it, watch it, believe everything the movie says, annnnnnnd go! That’s how it gets taught as this supposed “scientific study.” Someone got fucking lazy.
There’s also a doc on Netflix made by her brother, which doesn’t get into her orientation or romantic life but you do get to hear from Sophie herself as well as other living witnesses and you get more background on the killer (who was just a straight up sociopath who’s only goal was to murder someone that night). This case is taught in SO many psychology and sociology classes to prove that like altruism isn’t real or some BS.
Professor’s should NOT be telling people that this case was “SCIENTIFICALLY STUDIED.” It’s true that this case inspired some studies to look into the bystander effect, but the popular story of “no one helped,” was actually created by the New York Times; the current police commissioner, allegedly to deflect some heat around other issues the police were dealing with, mentioned the story including the inflated “38 witnesses” number to a NYT reporter over dinner. (The suspected number of actual witnesses is thought to be much lower.) No one has ever interviewed those imaginary 38 people as part of a study.
When did MLK ever advocate using violence though? He was all about non-violence and actually encouraged blacks to take beatings if it meant change. He preached love. You don’t become a Nazi or a rapist by fighting them (bad comparison btw, one is self-defense) but you certainly don’t become better than them. What about the black guy who got KKK members to change their minds by befriending them? Seems impossible, but it can happen.
See, that’s what y’all want. Y’all want marginalized people to take beatings in 2017. You’re not demanding the KKK, Neo-Nazis, Nazis, etc to stop being violent. You accept their violence and are OK with their violence AS LONG AS marginalized people take the beating.
Here’s a thought. Why don’t you talk to the KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc? Why don’t you talk to your white friends and white family members that either believe the same, or are OK with hate groups having an opinion that basically boils down to non-whites being subhuman and not worthy of having equal protection under the law, or being allowed to live.
Y’all tout out Dr. King as if he didn’t get shot in the damn head while he was advocating non-violence. Well, I’ll tell you what happens when Black people answer hate with love. You get NINE people murdered in church in Charleston, SC. NIne people that offered love, compassion, fellowship, and grace to a white supremacist and he SHOT THEM ANYWAY.
SO, fuck your feelings. It’s OUR lives on the line, not yours. We ARE better than them. We’ve ALWAYS been better than them, just based upon the fact that WHEN we were emancipated, we didn’t get our revenge for 400 years of slavery.
You all NEVER say the American colonists were “just as bad” as the British after the revolution. You all NEVER pull that false equivalency when it comes to the events surrounding an ARMED rebellion against their rightful King.
ARPAIO MURDERED HER AND HUNDREDS OF OTHERS.
“Powell, 48, died May 20, 2009, after being kept in a human cage in Goodyear’s Perryville Prison for at least four hours in the blazing Arizona sun. This, despite a prison policy limiting such outside confinement to a maximum of two hours.
The county medical examiner found the cause of death to be due to complications from heat exposure. Her core body temperature upon examination was 108 degrees Fahrenheit. She suffered burns and blisters all over her body.
Witnesses say she was repeatedly denied water by corrections officers, though the c.o.’s deny this. The weather the day she collapsed from the heat (May 19 – she died in the early morning hours of May 20) arched just above a 107 degree high.
According to a 3,000 page report released by the ADC, she pleaded to be taken back inside, but was ignored. Similarly, she was not allowed to use the restroom. When she was found unconscious, her body was covered with excrement from soiling herself.
Powell, who was serving a 27-month sentence for prostitution, actually expired after being transported to West Valley Hospital, where acting ADC Director Charles Ryan made the decision to have her life support suspended.
(Ryan lacked the authority to do this, but that’s another story, which you can read about, here.)
Native parents from around the world held their very young children’s hands as they walked them to boarding schools and residential schools. Some Native parents were forced to completely sign away their guardianship to principals of these “schools”, or face jail time. Others were visited by policemen, who forcibly seized their children from them. A few were undermined by “Indian Agents” on reservations, who withheld their rations on ration days. Some children never saw their parents again.
Boarding schools were built to “assimilate” the Native population into a white society, targeting their children. It had been assumed that conversion to Christianity and assimilation was “for the best interests” of Native and Indigenous people in Australia, the US, and Canada. The Native children were not allowed to practice skills relevant and appreciated to their cultures, such as carving. They were disallowed to speak in their native tongues, and were often physically, sexually, and psychologically tormented for doing so.
A five year old Native boy is raised by his family to know his hair as an extension of his soul, and that people only cut their hair if they experienced a loss of a loved one, a loss of a relationship, or a loss of oneself. As a stranger cuts off the little boy’s hair in order to better assimilate the child into the sex-based roles of a white male, the Native child is left quietly wondering who it is that has died, where his family went, and why the other children are being beaten for speaking to one another.
Only a small portion of each day was spent learning academically at these “schools”. Most of the day the children were exploited for their labor.
How the labor was divided was based upon the Native child’s sex.
Native girls were expected to do the domestic labor that was expected of white girls and women, such as cooking and cleaning, and Native boys were expected to perform manual labor, such as farm work, blacksmithing, and shoemaking. The children would reach a point where they would be “phased out” of these boarding schools for a summer or year at a time and forced to perform labor for private white and wealthy families who did not want these jobs and duties themselves.
Many boarding schools and residential homes had an overwhelming death rate from Tuberculosis, which swept through these schools and homes. Tuberculosis kills it’s victim within ten days. Native children were forced to play and sleep alongside other Native children who had contracted tuberculosis so that they, too, would die. Boarding schools suffered a 50% or higher death rate because of this, effectively reducing the Native population in an attempt to eradicate them.
Maisie Shaw, age 14, was kicked down a flight of stairs by Alfred Caldwell, the principal of the residential school she was forced to stay in and killed.
Other small skeletons of Native children have been found in church basements, which served as residential homes and boarding schools.
Other children were forced into prostitution rings.
Over fifty thousand children in Canada’s First Nations residential schools were beaten, raped, suffered from electrocutions and electroshock therapy, were forcibly sterilized, often medically experimented on, starved, and murdered.
It wasn’t until 1978 in the US that Native parents won the rights to deny sending their children to boarding schools. This wasn’t that long ago. In 1978, my mother was 21 years old.
In Australia, the residential homes lasted until 1984.
In Canada, the last residential home was closed in 1996.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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