by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
American bigotry suffered a major public relations setback yesterday when the southern racing organization, NASCAR, announced that it would no longer allow the display of Confederate flags at its events. The public reproach from the MAGAt crowd was painfully quick, and Donald Trump and his political minions decided it would be an excellent time to play a couple of race cards.
After NASCAR had gotten his base stirred up, Trump announced that his large MAGA hate rallies will resume later this month with the first being on June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, what sounds like a random date in a fairly nondescript American city - but both are important in the history of black Americans, a group that Trump routinely diminishes in order to amp up his racist base.
Many black Americans regard June 19th - a date often referred to as Juneteenth - as their "Freedom Day." President Lincoln announced his "Emancipation Proclamation," the document that granted freedom to all slaves in states that were in revolt against the United States, on January 1st, 1863. Obviously those same states did not recognize Lincoln's maneuver, and in many cases the slaves were completely unaware of it. But after the end of the Civil War in April of 1865, word quickly began spreading that the slaves in the South were free. Texas was the last Confederate state where the Emancipation Proclamation was finally announced - and that announcement was read to the last southern slaves on June 19th, 1865. Their slavery had ended!
Juneteenth is a cherished holiday for many black American families.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, while primarily known today for oil derricks and the legacy of televangelist and master-beggar Oral Roberts, was the home of one of the major US race riots of the early 20th century. Ninety-nine years ago -in 1921 - a major conflict erupted over Memorial Day weekend when a 19-year-old black man was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white woman. The white man was arrested and taken to the local courthouse where angry mobs quickly assembled.
As the conflict grew, white rioters stormed the black section of town, one of the wealthier black enclaves in America that was known at the "Black Wall Street" - an area with nice homes and businesses along with its own bus system, hospitals, newspapers, and schools. The white rioters began randomly killing residents and burning homes and stores, and some even dropped firebombs on the community from airplanes. More that 800 individuals were admitted to hospitals, and more than 6,000 black residents of Tulsa were arrested - and many remained in jail for several days. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics initially reported 36 deaths with 10 being white and 26 black, but subsequent estimates and counts indicated that the death toll was much higher.
Many survivors left the city for good, and many who stayed remained quiet about the horrific riots and helped to bury that ugly part of the city and state's history. Seventy-five years later in 1996, the Oklahoma legislature formed a commission to study the event, and it is now officially addressed in school classes on the history of Oklahoma.
And now, a century later, the Tulsa race riots still engender volatile feelings on both sides of the racial divide, particularly in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Donald Trump and his campaign staff chose Juneteenth and the city of Tulsa to send a very specific message to his followers: race matters. It's a dog whistle and it is being blown for all it is worth!
Trump also chose yesterday to stir some racist outrage within the military. US military leaders have been going on record saying that they would not be opposed to changing the names of US bases and forts that are named after Confederate military leaders. While a whole host of US bases are named after Confederate military leaders - people who fought, in uniform, against the United States of America in the Civil War, we have no bases named for Eisenhower, the man who led the D-Day invasion that ultimately brought about Germany's capitulation in World War II - nor do we have bases named for the likes of George S. Patton, Omar N. Bradley, or John J. Pershing.
Here are some of the military installations that bear Confederate names: Camp Beauregard, Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, Fort Gordon, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Hood, Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, Fort Polk, and Fort Rucker.
This would be a good time to disempower the traitors to the Union and honor those who actually did serve the United States with courage and honor.
But Donald John Trump, a five-time draft dodger, was not having it. He chose yesterday - in his frenzy to preserve all of the ante-bellum splendor of the Old South - to announce that he would not allow the names of any Confederate leaders to be removed from US bases. ANTIFA might knock down a few statues, but they would never change the name of Camp Beauregard to Camp MacArthur - never!
It was another racist dog whistle, a biggie, and Trump's dogs were listening!
NASCAR might turn its back on the people that brought it to the dance, but Donald Trump never would. Those angry white crackers whom Trump may mock and laugh at in private, are people that he knows how to manipulate - and with Trump it's always about division and manipulation. He is not burdened with lofty ideals, just a gut-wrenching desire to make as much money and sow as much discord as he can while he squats in the People's House.
And if Trump can do all of that while fanning the flames of bigotry, well . . . that's just gravy!
Citizen Journalist
American bigotry suffered a major public relations setback yesterday when the southern racing organization, NASCAR, announced that it would no longer allow the display of Confederate flags at its events. The public reproach from the MAGAt crowd was painfully quick, and Donald Trump and his political minions decided it would be an excellent time to play a couple of race cards.
After NASCAR had gotten his base stirred up, Trump announced that his large MAGA hate rallies will resume later this month with the first being on June 19th in Tulsa, Oklahoma, what sounds like a random date in a fairly nondescript American city - but both are important in the history of black Americans, a group that Trump routinely diminishes in order to amp up his racist base.
Many black Americans regard June 19th - a date often referred to as Juneteenth - as their "Freedom Day." President Lincoln announced his "Emancipation Proclamation," the document that granted freedom to all slaves in states that were in revolt against the United States, on January 1st, 1863. Obviously those same states did not recognize Lincoln's maneuver, and in many cases the slaves were completely unaware of it. But after the end of the Civil War in April of 1865, word quickly began spreading that the slaves in the South were free. Texas was the last Confederate state where the Emancipation Proclamation was finally announced - and that announcement was read to the last southern slaves on June 19th, 1865. Their slavery had ended!
Juneteenth is a cherished holiday for many black American families.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, while primarily known today for oil derricks and the legacy of televangelist and master-beggar Oral Roberts, was the home of one of the major US race riots of the early 20th century. Ninety-nine years ago -in 1921 - a major conflict erupted over Memorial Day weekend when a 19-year-old black man was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white woman. The white man was arrested and taken to the local courthouse where angry mobs quickly assembled.
As the conflict grew, white rioters stormed the black section of town, one of the wealthier black enclaves in America that was known at the "Black Wall Street" - an area with nice homes and businesses along with its own bus system, hospitals, newspapers, and schools. The white rioters began randomly killing residents and burning homes and stores, and some even dropped firebombs on the community from airplanes. More that 800 individuals were admitted to hospitals, and more than 6,000 black residents of Tulsa were arrested - and many remained in jail for several days. The Oklahoma Bureau of Vital Statistics initially reported 36 deaths with 10 being white and 26 black, but subsequent estimates and counts indicated that the death toll was much higher.
Many survivors left the city for good, and many who stayed remained quiet about the horrific riots and helped to bury that ugly part of the city and state's history. Seventy-five years later in 1996, the Oklahoma legislature formed a commission to study the event, and it is now officially addressed in school classes on the history of Oklahoma.
And now, a century later, the Tulsa race riots still engender volatile feelings on both sides of the racial divide, particularly in and around Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Donald Trump and his campaign staff chose Juneteenth and the city of Tulsa to send a very specific message to his followers: race matters. It's a dog whistle and it is being blown for all it is worth!
Trump also chose yesterday to stir some racist outrage within the military. US military leaders have been going on record saying that they would not be opposed to changing the names of US bases and forts that are named after Confederate military leaders. While a whole host of US bases are named after Confederate military leaders - people who fought, in uniform, against the United States of America in the Civil War, we have no bases named for Eisenhower, the man who led the D-Day invasion that ultimately brought about Germany's capitulation in World War II - nor do we have bases named for the likes of George S. Patton, Omar N. Bradley, or John J. Pershing.
Here are some of the military installations that bear Confederate names: Camp Beauregard, Fort Benning, Fort Bragg, Fort Gordon, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Hood, Fort Lee, Fort Pickett, Fort Polk, and Fort Rucker.
This would be a good time to disempower the traitors to the Union and honor those who actually did serve the United States with courage and honor.
But Donald John Trump, a five-time draft dodger, was not having it. He chose yesterday - in his frenzy to preserve all of the ante-bellum splendor of the Old South - to announce that he would not allow the names of any Confederate leaders to be removed from US bases. ANTIFA might knock down a few statues, but they would never change the name of Camp Beauregard to Camp MacArthur - never!
It was another racist dog whistle, a biggie, and Trump's dogs were listening!
NASCAR might turn its back on the people that brought it to the dance, but Donald Trump never would. Those angry white crackers whom Trump may mock and laugh at in private, are people that he knows how to manipulate - and with Trump it's always about division and manipulation. He is not burdened with lofty ideals, just a gut-wrenching desire to make as much money and sow as much discord as he can while he squats in the People's House.
And if Trump can do all of that while fanning the flames of bigotry, well . . . that's just gravy!
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