In a recent New York Times op-ed, Tom Hanks lamented the fact that his education did not include the massacre at Black Wall Street. Tom, you are not alone. Here are a few other people, places, and concepts America’s history books neglected to include: Martin Delany, Mary Turner, Deacons for Defense and Justice, Door of No Return, COINTELPRO, and reckless eyeballing. Why is it that many Black folks know this history? Well, before the internet and social media, Black people preserved history through the centuries-old oral tradition. At barbershops, churches, and family reunions, Black elders were always sharing their stories of surviving America, stories they knew their Black descendants would never hear in school.
The redacted, fairy -ale version of American history most White people have embraced as truth prevents substantive conversations about White supremacy from ever occurring. It is not possible to heal America’s racial wounds when Black and White people’s solutions are rooted in conflicting historical journeys: one, fact and the other, fiction. It results in well-meaning White people’s superficial analysis of egregious acts of racism. Instead of categorizing such acts as evidence of historic, systemic racial oppression, they get filed under the “isolated incidents” section, which exacerbates Black people’s feelings of powerlessness. It is time that White people, especially those who want to live in a nation centered on equality, justice, and freedom for all, learn the history that has been hidden from them. White America, stop hiding behind history’s lies, which has allowed you guilt free access to comfort, safety, and wealth while simultaneously disregarding the toll it has taken on Black Americans.
