In referencing the events in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 31 and June 1, 1921, Joe Biden once again invoked the notion that White racism is the systemic cancer imperiling American Democracy, making “social justice” for people of color virtually impossible. As the Left always does, as it did in its canonization of George Floyd, he conveniently failed to mention any of the facts of the Tulsa incident inconsistent with his simplistic narrative.
As Dick Rowland, a young Black man, had been jailed for apparently raping a 17 year old White girl, rumors swirled that he might be lynched while in custody. Justifiably concerned by the possibility, approximately 75 Blacks showed up at the prison only to be assured by the local sheriff that everything was under control and they simply needed to leave. Upon doing so they were confronted by a crowd of reportedly “hundreds” of Whites whereupon violence broke out. But while Wikipedia, with typical disingenuousness, suggests “some” of the Blacks were armed, the results of the confrontation would suggest many of them were, 10 White people dying in the ensuing exchange of fire and only 2 Blacks. It was in response to those 10 deaths that the White population of Tulsa, many of them deputized and armed by city authorities, went on a rampage, invading what was known as Black Wall Street, one of the most affluent African American communities in the country, destroying or damaging 35 blocks of property and leaving thousands homeless. While estimates vary greatly, a 2001 commission confirmed that 39 people died as a result of the violence, 26 Blacks and 13 Whites.
One would be a fool to suggest racism was not a factor among the White citizens of Tulsa and that the devastation of its Greenwood neighborhood was in any way justified. But surely the murder of 10 White people by a Black mob that had clearly come armed for violence was the primary cause of the ensuing events. Surely the assertion all over Google’s opening page that the perpetrator of the calamity was a “White American mob” is grossly simplistic. Surely a Factual as opposed to Ideological perspective would conclude there was more than enough blame to indict both sides in the days’ events.
However vile the treatment of Blacks in many parts of the States throughout much of the last Century, things have changed radically in the last few decades. The 2001 Tulsa commission assigned to report on the 1921 “massacre” actually recommended reparations to the offspring of its Black victims as well as academic scholarships for their children. Does that sound anything like the Tulsa that decided to level a Black neighborhood 100 years ago?
Of course there are and always will be xenophobes of every race and religion among us. We are a flawed species. But it is a Fact that the Democracies born of the Western European Enlightenment have progressively legislated against the consequences of genuine intolerance to an extent unparalleled elsewhere. This claim, while demonstrably true, makes me a White Supremacist to those on the contemporary Left, those so devoid of Ideas that they must constantly promote the Myth of an all pervasive Evil from which they will protect the Western World in order to justify their very existence. Hence the comedy that is A.O.C., Nancy Pelosi, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, etc.