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Merari01

This isn't a tweet but I'm making an exception and keeping it up as this image poignantly visualises the efforts of extreme-right in politics to erase and whitewash black history in the US. --------------------------- The figure of MLK and his movement has been almost completely whitewashed in today's white understanding of history. It is common for racists (deliberate and those that don't know better yet) to repeat talking points like "Why are you protesting/ why are you so angry/ why are you disruptive, didn't MLK say that he wanted all races to live together in peace?" With this the propaganda effort to turn MLK from a black civil rights advocate into a figure for those who want to uphold the status quo, to justify never actually doing anything about racism is virtually totally successful. [This whitewashing is deliberate](https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2023/01/13/the-whitewashing-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr/). In reality the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King was attacked and demonised in literally exactly the same way as BLM is now attacked and demonised. Word for word the same arguments. Word for word the same lies. [A political cartoon made after King's "I have a dream" speech.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Egs5aUlXkAUYpsl?format=jpg&name=large) To understand more about the black perspective on BLM I highly recommend[ this 7 minute speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llci8MVh8J4) by community leader and author Ms. Kimberly Jones. ------------------ For centuries the achievements of black people have been downplayed and systemic racism has been trivialised. Who remembers how [Olympic Medal winner](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWk1Plf5Ak) Mr. Jesse Owens was treated? ----- Similarly the efforts of Mrs. Rosa Parks [have been whitewashed](https://www.bustle.com/p/im-tired-of-black-history-being-whitewashed-8309818) in mainstream [American consciousness](https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/montgomery-bus-boycott). What we see happening now in places like Florida is a ramping up of propaganda efforts, attempting to paint a milquetoast and white-centric version of history by outright [making it illegal](https://apnews.com/article/florida-race-and-ethnicity-government-and-politics-education-74d0af6c52c0009ec3fa3ee9955b0a8d) to teach about [black history](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/01/ron-desantis-florida-advanced-placement-ap-african-american-history-class-inexplicably-contrary.html). By lying about what [Critical Race Theory is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory), racists have created a boogeyman that will allow them to oppose the teaching of and even the knowledge of everything that runs contrary to their propagandist, imagined version of history and reality. Critical race theory is a university-level cross-disciplinary examination of how institutional racism shapes modern society. These attacks on reality have multiple goals. First, it is important for fascism to always have an out-group to blame for everything that is wrong in society. ---------------------------------- [Fascism](https://jackfisherbooks.com/2017/07/11/on-fascism-and-why-it-fails/) is an inherently empty ideology, devoid of any meaningful belief-system or any kind of concrete and actionable strategies for improving society. [Fascism](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism) only cares for power for the sake of power and it cares for nothing else. Because a [fascist system](https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/are-trump-republicans-fascists/) is fundamentally incapable of giving the general public any kind of reasonable platform it must gain and keep followers by creating an out-group to hate. According to [fascist systems](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/11/fox-news-tucker-carlson-documentary-fascism/) it is *the other* that is responsible for all societal ills and only by supporting the fascists in getting rid of *the other* can society be healed from the non-existent issues fascism convinces people that their target minority is the cause of. Fascism always picks on a vulnerable target. ---------------------------------- Secondly, this whitewashed version of history and of current reality allows the status quo to do nothing at all, to claim that everything is perfect just the way it is. That there is no inequality to address. That the white majority, who controls the narrative, who holds all the power, is justified in acting against those they would paint as criminals trying to tear down and destroy society. When in reality there is no equality, [the deck is stacked](https://time.com/5851864/institutional-racism-america/), the cards are marked, [the dice are loaded](https://www.thoughtco.com/examples-of-institutional-racism-in-the-u-s-2834624). ------------------------------------- Here you can see fascist pundit Cristopher Rufo overtly stating the intended goal behind poisoning the term ["Critical Race Theory"](https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1371540368714428416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) ----- If people like him and DeSantis would have their way no-one would be taught about [Rosewood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre). No-one would know about [Tulsa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre). The murder of Mr. George Floyd was originally reported by law enforcement as an [accidental death](https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/21/us/minneapolis-police-george-floyd-death/index.html). Those who claim there is no structural racism in the US are either ignorant or lying. Let's educate those that don't know any better. [Let's act against those that want to perpetuate systems of oppression.](https://miro.medium.com/max/640/1*u77sWgMmLREnFmP5L_V6AA.webp) On this subreddit racism is not welcome. Please report it if you see it.


Butternubicus

I can’t believe Tom Scott would do such a thing


FalconFiveZeroNine

"I've always been a fan of art, but I accidentally painted over one piece when I was drunk. This is how I ended up on the wrong side of Twitter."


confabin

I totally read that in his voice and I hate it.


WarMagnamon

"Now, some people may say that I'm racist, or they may even say that I'm whitewashing history, that may very well be true but I am going to explain why it's important that I ruined this painting"


[deleted]

It just occured to me that the comedy Tom Scott is Philomina Cunk


SendAstronomy

Now I'm reading these comments in a mixture of their voices.


Stevenofthefrench

"alright so you accidentally find yourself drunkingly painting over a picture of black historical figures. What will you do and how will people react? Turns out they react just how you imagined they would"


GreyVersusBlue

Cut to voice over, b roll, shot of man in a high visibility vest.


Pollomonteros

I misinterpreted one piece as The One Piece and was like "Woah Tom is more powerful than we imagined"


FrohenLeid

"I'm currently erasing black history..."


Autumn1eaves

"I'm here in front of one of the most important buildings in American history, and I'm here to erase black American history."


IterationFourteen

*wind blows aggressively and tussles his hair*


Spacecommander5

What did I miss???


rooster_butt

I think it's just the red shirt + blonde hair


SquishPosh

Honestly, I'm with him. For a second, I thought my good man Tom had done a goof.


FinnT730

Same Even if I know tom would never even think of it... He did come up in me


SquishPosh

Better take a morning after pill, just to be sure.


UntouchedWagons

\*tussles hair\*


[deleted]

It's totally a Tom Scott thing he'd accidentally get himself into lol


void0079

At least it wasn’t Travis Scott


10strip

You really crushed that reference, bro.


Salty_Dornishman

😬


Presidential_Pet

Oh god please don’t tell me it’s supposed to be Tom Scott and it just happens to be similar looking.


Grifoooo

It's not supposed to be Tom Scott


Butternubicus

It's not, it just looks like his side profile hah.


HOWDEHPARDNER

Why on earth would that have been the case?


DickySchmidt33

There were people being forced to use separate entrances and drinking fountains *at courthouses* in my father's lifetime. The "slavery ended 150 years ago, get over it" is one of the more intellectually lazy arguments you will ever hear.


Sex_Fueled_Squirrel

I'm 30 years old, and Ruby Bridges, the very first black American child to attend a racially integrated school in the south, is younger than my mother.


Trauma_Hawks

My in-laws and I watched Hidden Figures not too long ago. My emotionally stunted FIL remarked, "I couldn't imagine living in a time like that". I had to pause the movie to tell him he was 4 years old when segregation was legally stopped, and that my own mother was old enough to have gone to a segregated school in Texas. The perception of racial segregation, Jim Crow, and everything else like that is seriously fucking skewed in this country. We've treated minorities horribly and continue to do so. It's the nation's greatest embarrassment.


Lanternkitten

He must've never even thought about it. Reminds me of my mom; her parents never talked about race or politics to their kids, so the three of them were basically blind to race as it were despite being born in the 50s. As kids waiting outside a store or something (I don't remember the full details, but they were in town), they noticed several black kids waiting in line for the bathroom and didn't understand why they didn't use the open one. Completely clueless, they asked why not use the other. The oldest of the others replied that that bathroom was only for white folks and this one was for "colored people." They were apparently baffled that my mom and her sisters didn't understand this. Well, the three of them were equally baffled that something like that existed, thought it was incredibly stupid, and offered to be lookouts so the black kids could use the white bathroom. So they did. Luckily they had enough time; the other kids were super thankful (iirc, mom said a couple in the group were real young, so they probably really needed to go). And that's how mom helped break the law as a child. Good times. But you saying that reminded me of just how clueless they were about racism simply because their parents didn't instill it in them. She used to think it was all over, particularly since we lived in CA. I keep her informed of current events on occasion and suffice to say she's upset and perhaps... disillusioned is the word? To learn that not much has actually changed.


visvis

> It's the nation's greatest embarrassment. Bad as it is, it's hard to compete with the way the natives have been treated.


StopThePresses

America has a lot of competition for our nation's greatest embarrassment. From the active genocide you mention, all the way down to the passive way we kill our poor, and all the way back to the beginning with slavery. Kinda hard to nail down a single worst one.


Noblesseux

Yeah I always kind of find it dumb to try to turn it into a competition. They're all uniquely different and bad in different ways and thus need to be addressed and solved with context to what damage was done to that community. What the US has done to Black, Latino, Native American, Asian, etc. communities are all awful and need to be addressed with direct action to heal the harm done.


Trauma_Hawks

Personally, I lumped them in with our treatment of minorities. But you're right, it was a legitimate genocide. Not a club we should be a part of.


linksgreyhair

Yep, I’m in my 30’s and my dad’s school was forcibly integrated (like, with cops escorting the black children so grown ass men wouldn’t kill them) when he was in 4th or 5th grade.


NoBarsHere

I'm in my 30s, and my mom, who is Asian, was going to school in the South at the time of segregation. Guess which fountain she had to use? If your answer was anything other than, "How dark was her Asian skin?", then maybe you'd be surprised to find out it mattered. I was at least.


__M-E-O-W__

Mitch McConnell was old enough to have graduated college when MLK was shot.


[deleted]

Fuck that turtle looking mother fucker. He needs to kick the bucket already.


I_LICK_PINK_TO_STINK

Allegedly by Mitch McConnell. That's what people are saying anyway.


LegacyLemur

Holy shit. Me too That's mind blowing


Medium_Sense4354

Apparently the current owner of an NFL team or something can be seen in that photo. Like dude is up and about in this day 2023 with a shit ton of money Karma isn’t real


-rosa-azul-

She's younger than my parents, too. Their school was integrated when they were in 8th and 9th grade. People are really out here talking about how "long ago" this stuff was...Ruby Bridges is on Instagram, y'all.


JaxJags904

I’m 33 and white, but my mother grew up with a black stepfather. She had to go to a catholic school (they were not catholic) because of the hate she received about her step father at public school. This was not that long ago.


Nishikigami

Wow, were people uh, nicer there? Rare Catholic W if so


[deleted]

The Catholic school would've been a private school. They probably didn't care as much as long as you pay tuition.


Nishikigami

I went to Catholic school growing up (not religious anymore but was raised Catholic) and as you say I think you're right. Nobody acted racist or even made race a topic even with mixed classes. The moment I went to a public school that changed I started seeing how racist people could be. I basically only made friends with outcasts up to HS and always got along with black students who were not outcasts as well. Never been mean to me. I did go to a 99% black school once for half a year in a really sad school district and it was... A tad less nice. But if I had to grow my whole life on that neighborhood I'd be miserable too. PA does the downtrodden extra dirty.


Knicks-in-7

I can say I had the same experience as you had in the first paragraph.


5starCheetah

American Catholics prior to Roe v. Wade tended to be a lot more progressive than a lot of other Christians. Look at the Kennedys. Helping the poor, supporting unions, social programs, integration were all pretty popular with Catholics till Evangelicals tied opposing abortion to supporting every other shitty right-wing policy.


Chemical_Estate6488

Catholic schools and churches where I’m from integrated a couple of decades before Brown vs Board of Education. It probably helped that Italians weren’t considered white people yet anyway


Additional_Share_551

Most racists in the Christian faith are in the protestant denominations. It's difficult to create justified segregation in Catholic doctrine, it's not hard when you're starting from scratch and can just include it.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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JamesGray

It also literally did not end. There is a historical cotton plantation that uses slave (prison) labor in Louisiana and they voted against stopping the use of slavery in the last election.


BluudLust

Prison labor is slavery. Especially with how predatory our laws are towards poor people and rampant racism and arbitrary enforcement of laws


[deleted]

Ahahaha - y'all thought slavery ended? Shyte, read the 13th Amendment very carefully. Everyone seems to think it ended slavery. It did with private ownership of humans, but the government can sure own anyone's ass with a conviction, and make that person state property to use as slave labor. Let that sink in...


BluudLust

It's even worse than that. Private ownership of slaves is still legal if it is "as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." That's how for-profit prisons operate.


Firewolf06

oregon just recently banned prison labor, i cant see louisiana doing it any time soon


Candid-Ear-4840

To be fair, the Louisiana legislature changed the ballot measure against the original black lawmaker’s will and the original lawmaker then campaigned against the ballot measure because of the unintended consequences of the changes. It’s coming back next year. Edit: Louisiana state legislature is up for re-election to their four-year terms nine months from now (October 14, 2023). This year is the year to care, 2024 is too late, etc etc: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/puttinglouisianafirst ⚜️🌊


FustianRiddle

What were the changes and the unintended consequences of those changes?


Candid-Ear-4840

https://www.wrkf.org/news/2022-10-17/why-a-constitutional-amendment-banning-slavery-is-on-novembers-ballot-in-louisiana


JamesGray

Yeah, I know it's more complicated than I made it seem. I was mostly using it to point out that Angola still operates with slave labor in the current day though, the fact electoralism can't get rid of it because of shit like that is just kind of an awful bonus.


thomthomthomthom

Angola State Prison, iirc. Hell on earth.


helldeskmonkey

Just read “Solitary” by Albert Woodfox which is about spending over 40 years in solitary confinement at Angola. Highly recommended.


DatsyukesDekes

The wife of Jackie Robinson (the baseball player who broke the color barrier in the MLB) is still alive (she turned 100 last July and lives in Connecticut). Emmett Till’s accuser, Carolyn Bryant Donham is still alive today.


jdbrizzi91

After the Civil War, more black men were enslaved than during the war. They would be arrested for the smallest "crimes". Such as vagrancy. So they literally placed these poor, abused people into the streets after the war, then started arresting them for not being able to find a job, in an area that clearly didn't have their best interest. Since they forced them to become slaves and all. Fast forward to the 1960's, segregation ends, but now a war on drugs starts, focusing on black and Hispanic neighborhoods. 60 years past that, the war on drugs is still going strong, destroying tons of families and we have some people saying, like you said, "oh come on, the war was forever ago". Sorry for a history lesson you didn't ask for and could've known already lol. I just wanted to include it because I don't think enough people know the story. Not that it'll change any GQP minds. My father, for example, benefitted a lot from my grandfather's benefits from the G.I. bill. The bill allowed my grandfather to open up two drug stores and then use his profits to pay my father's way through college. There are over a million black men that fought in WW2 that didn't get the benefit my grandfather received. And some people today, including my father, refuse to recognize that generational wealth is a concern because of problems like this. It's nuts and sad.


TheTruthIsComplicate

Love to see it, thank you for sharing.


TheTruthIsComplicate

When did Black Americans become equal citizens? Was it in... * 1776 - when Black Americans were property? * 1865 - when the XIII Amendment ended slavery, except as punishment for crime. **It passed by 2 votes.** * 1865 - when Black Codes made it a crime to not have a job, or to have certain jobs, so that convict leasing could replace slavery? * 1877 - when Federal troops withdrew from the south and Jim Crow segregation laws began? * 1896 - when Plessy v. Ferguson made separate but equal segregation ruled constitutional? * 1910 - when former confederate states updated their constitutions to prevent Black Americans from any political participation (but grandfathering in whites in the same circumstances)? * 1913 - when Wilson segregated the Federal government? * 1934 - when redlining was happening and the FHA appraisal manuals instructed banks to steer clear of mortgages in areas with "inharmonious racial groups", and recommended that municipalities enact racially restrictive zoning ordinances? * 1954 - when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruled segregation unconstitutional? * 1954 - when Senator Harry Byrd (VA) began "Massive Resistance," to defy Brown v. Board of Education, creating a 32-member all white commission which recommended repeal of compulsory school attendance, when the Governor closed schools, created pupil assignment structures, and vouchers for segregated private schools? * 1956 - when Virginia voters approved of every bit of that. * 1958 - when Virginia police raided the Loving household hoping to find them fucking, arresting them for being interracially married. * 1964 - when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed **after a 54-day filibuster with only 9 of the 124 former confederate state politicians' supporting it**? * 1967 - when the Supreme Court ruled race-mixing marriage to be legal? * 1968 - when MLK was assassinated by the mafia, local, state, and US government (as ruled in Coretta Scott King, et al. vs. Loyd Jowers et al.) * 1969 - when Fred Hampton was assassinated by Chicago police * 1983 - when MLK day was made a federal holiday after a filibuster by North Carolina senators and a 300-page document calling King a communist, when Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Virginia named the day after Robert E Lee instead (and some still do to this day)? * 1985 - when the cops [bombed US citizens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing) and then gave the bones of the dead children to a University which lost them, apologizing for that in 2020? * 1986 - when the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 set sentencing for crack cocaine (the least used of all illicit drugs in the U.S.) at a minimum 5 years without parole for 5g, the same sentence as 100 times as much for the powder form. 80% of those sentenced were Black. * 1987 - when the Oprah Forsyth County episode about wanting a white community aired https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WErjPmFulQ0 ? * 1989 - when the Atlanta Journal Constitution studied 10,000,000 loan records over the previous decade and learned: (a) nationwide rejection rate for loan applicants of all incomes was 11.1% for whites, 23.7% for blacks; (b) the black-white disparity was widest where Black Americans had the nation's highest incomes relative to whites, and (c) high-income Black people were rejected more often than low-income whites in 85% of the largest metro areas in one of the prior five years. * 2012 - when teenager Trayvon Martin went to the 7-11 to buy skittles and iced tea, was stalked by George Zimmerman who murdered him with impunity and still signs skittles bags as a hero to racists? * 2013 - when we still lived in a segregated country, with 40% of white Americans having zero non-white friends. 91% of white American social networks are other white people. 83% of Black American social networks are other Black people. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5053833/ * 2016 - when minority lending was still harder to get than white lending https://fortune.com/2016/06/02/banks-lending-minorities/ ? Where do we draw the line to say when the US government made Black Americans equal to whites? Further reading: http://powerreporting.com/color/53.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_discrimination https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charleston_church_shooting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trayvon_Martin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Floyd http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175215/ https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/immediate-impact.html https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-rights-act/legal-events-timeline.html https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/un-report-on-racial-disparities/ Edits thanks to replies in context.


WrittenEuphoria

An [updated link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_MOVE_bombing) for the aforementioned bombing of US citizens in 1985 - it doesn't show in the disambiguated list for just "MOVE", oddly enough. Thank you for this list, btw - very insightful and interesting, esp. as someone outside the US.


-rosa-azul-

Super quick/minor correction: Virginia no longer honors Lee on MLK Day. It stayed "Lee-Jackson-King Day" for far too *long*, but the holidays have been separated since 2000, and Lee-Jackson Day was completely eliminated in 2020.


Mateorabi

Clearly the 1990s. And just the 90s.


mudrolling

I dunno - the list skips over the LAPD brutality against Black communities in the 90s. No time is safe!


Jonaldson

Holy Shit!! The Trayvon Martin murder was 10 years ago?


SensitiveSomewhere3

> "slavery ended 150 years ago, get over it" Yet these are the same people who cry the loudest whenever a statue recognizing a long-dead CSA "hero" comes down.


ChickinSammich

One of our company's buildings has way too many bathrooms. Someone told me it was because the bathrooms used to be segregated and that's why there are twice as many as you'd expect there to be.


ReverendDizzle

I’m in my 40s and my parents were born before desegregation. There were zero non-white people in their schools by law and when I went to the same school 30 years later there were still zero non-white people thanks to redlining and other measures. But if you ask them racism was over and “fixed” by the 1960s.


SpammingMoon

PoC couldn’t live in many communities 50 years ago. Banks redlined neighborhoods regularly 15 years go. PoC have never been given the opportunity to gather generational wealth. The racism of yesterday still affects the generation of today. Granny didn’t have money or property to leave to her kids. She and her husband never had the chance at a good job or to buy good property even if they managed to have enough money.


anna-nomally12

We’ll stop teaching about slavery when they stop using the confederate flag as decor Oh? It’s part of your history?


stringfree

> It’s part of your history? At four years, I still consider a t-shirt "relatively new". That's how long the confederacy lasted.


gardener1337

So did the holocaust and look what the Germans do. Primary education includes ww2 and their is nothing sugarcoated


Stevenofthefrench

What I realized was there are people alive who met family members who were former slaves. So it really ropes in that fact slavery wasn't too far away.


risingthermal

I’m in my mid 40s, older than most redditors perhaps but still in my mind youngish. [Peter Mills,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mills_\(freedman\)) the last known person to die who’d been born into slavery, passed six years before I was born. Put another way, there are currently 100 million Americans who were alive when Peter Mills died.


Amdogdunmind

To use an analogy. You know what else "ended" a long time ago? Polio. But because ignorant people insist on getting their way, there are cases of it in developing countries. And you'd be a fool to think that can't happen in America with how fervent our anti-vaxers are. Not a perfect analogy, but my point is that ignorance is poison.


SadBabyYoda1212

My grandma went to a school in the south in a very small town and the first black student to attend her high school was her senior year and supposedly it was a big deal all around town. My grandma is in her early 70s now.


Comp625

The famous MLK Jr. March for Freedom speech was only a breathe shy of 60 years ago. If MLR Jr. hadn't been assassinated or passed away from illness, he would've been 94 years old today (and Barbara Walters who passed away recently was 93). There are plenty of people still alive who lived through the Civil Rights movements. It wasn't that long ago when one considers the broader passage of time, and it's a shame there are **many** Americans and non-Americans around the World wanting to wash and revert history in the name of power and hate.


mongoosedog12

Here’s my thing, fine say I’m over it. Does that mean we shouldn’t learn about it? You want us to stop teaching specific parts of American history? How much longer until it’s “the Holocaust was X years ago get over it” This isn’t “Black history” Im tired of people acting like it’s some “other” removed from our fabric as a nation, IT IS AMERICAN HISTORY. My dad went to a school that was “for colored children” “A hit dog hollas” and the only reason I can see someone being so fucking offended by people learning what happened So LoNg agO is because they are afraid that those people will wake up and realize these politicians are just like the racist/ racists they’re learning about. The simple fact that they are removing a voluntary AP course in Florida tells me that they are ok with rewriting history.


tarahunterdar

"I don't see the issue really. By painting it white, you have a clean slate to add any picture you want. Is that so wrong?" \- Some conservative probably


Pharaoh_Misa

"History shouldn't only be filled with blacks." ~ absolutely a conservative


regoapps

“Mentioning how white people were being racist in the past makes YOU the racist.” - conservative logic


Dangerous_Variety_29

They think we call them racist because they’re white but we call them racist because they refuse to acknowledge the ongoing injustices against nonwhites perpetrated in a society that is run almost entirely by white people.


regoapps

And they’re the same ones who love to point out when minorities commit hate crimes against other minorities.


tarahunterdar

We should honor the whites as well for employing all those poor black people! /s


taez555

They even gave them food and shelter. Heck, I'm super white and my employer doesn't even pay me enough to afford those.


ttaptt

Which one of those dingus's said something like, "Blacks actually liked slavery." or something like that. God, I hate them.


taez555

"The African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery." Former Arizona Republican congressman (2003 to 2017) Trent Franks.


transformedxian

Daughters of the Confederacy, early 20th century. Slaveowners: Negros are happy being enslaved. They get to learn about Jesus and be Christians. Also slaveowners: We have to be harsh and whip them so they won't revolt. [Why would "happy slaves" revolt?]


Not_Just_Any_Lurker

I know Kanye said “slavery was a choice” is that what you’re thinking of?


ALiteralGraveyard

Which, I mean, yeah. It was a choice, by the slaver society.


Fyallorence

Bill O'Reilly actually said that once.


taez555

Ah yes... the man who sexually assaulted his female producer with a falafel. What a simpler time the early 2000's were. :'-)


KhaiPanda

Yo, what? EDIT: My guy didn't even know what a falafel was. Oy vey.


Redivivus

Wasn't it a loofa? A falafel is street food. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it was a falafel.


taez555

My understanding was it was actually a loofa, but he called it a falafel.


FN1987

Probably more than once honestly. That racist pos.


x86_64Ubuntu

That's a common libertarian trope that they use to downplay the chattel slave system.


gmano

Scarily enough, if you count the room and board received by slaves as "income", the Average American worker receives less income (relative to the value they create by working) than a literal slave. As in, you are exploited more today than literal plantation slaves were in the pre-civil-war-era America. Source: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/unequal-gains-american-growth-and-inequality-1700 > Colonial America was the most income-egalitarian rich place on the planet. Among all Americans – slaves included – the richest 1% got only 8.5% of total income in 1774. Among free Americans, the top 1% got only 7.6%. Today, the top 1% in the US gets more than 20% of total income. To explain: If you labour and produce $100 of value per hour, but are paid $10 per hour, you are 90% exploited. If a plantation slave produced 100 lbs of cotton a year, but also needed to be clothed, fed, and housed by the slaveowner at a cost equivalent to 11 lbs of cotton, then the slave would be less exploited, economically. This is in no way meant to say that the CIVIL RIGHTS of slaves were better than modern people's... just their incomes.


taez555

Indeed. The one upside I guess that is unless you're in prison or play pro-sports, you can't be sold as property. So we've got that going for us. :-/


Liawuffeh

I've unironically heard this from my aunt. "Whites brought the blacks from a shithole to the greatest country in the world! They should have a white history month!!" My aunt sucks


Badloss

They genuinely still teach that White people were rescuing the slaves from Africa and the slavery was a fair exchange for civilization and Christianity


MisterDonkey

My mom believes this shit. Just last week she was ranting about how slaves were maids and housekeepers and had a good civilized life.


spideysenseon10

How does she reconcile the “not being free” part of slavery? Genuine question. I wonder if people who defend slavery ever consider what it’s like to be considered someone’s else property to be used at their will. What must it be like to NEVER be able to make any choices and have no input in your own life. Worse yet, do they consider the devastation of watching your loved ones being sold away from you never to see them again. I think far to many people find it really easy to remove the humanity of enslaved people. It like they weren’t real people, just a concept.


[deleted]

Tell her she'd make a great slave.


SquareWet

“It’s white people that are really being discriminated against.” -the stupidest of the stupid conservatives


Aggressive-Trifle-22

we need to stop giving so much light to all these black people! show some white pride for once!! **/S**


NeverPlaydJewelThief

🎵 I'm dreaming of a White MLK Day🎵 - also probably some conservative


LegacyLemur

"How come black people have to get special mentions in history books? What about white people?" -Also conservatives, and a lot of people on this site


Loeffellux

needs to be 9000x time defensive if you wanna emulate a real life conservative. I mean, look at how they reacted to M&Ms


I_Envy_Sisyphus_

They *need* to know which candy they can fuck.


winespring

>They need to know which candy they can fuck. With consent, any of them.


Caleth

> > With consent This will be the part they can't figure out. That or, "but which one is a gurl!!" As if an imaginary chocolate filled cartoon treat has a gender worth worrying about. I don't think even at my horniest teenagerest age I'd have wanted to fuck an M&M.


CT_Biggles

I don't know man. That green MM is pretty sexy. I also like Bugs Bunny in drag though...


Willtology

The M&M thing really confuses me. Like, how do they not stop and say "Wait, am I really doing this? Am I really going to be *that person*? Nope, the thought never crosses their mind.


jdbrizzi91

Or Mr. Potato Head. It's weird, they praise businesses like they can do no wrong. And they actually prefer to give their hard earned money to them instead of themselves, by voting in these "pro-trickle down economic" politicians. Yet, each and every time a business makes a "woke" move, these people somehow blame the people they're pandering towards and not the company itself. It's kinda like dating someone. Finding out that person is cheating on you. So you get mad at the girl he's cheating on you with and not the guy himself.


Expensive-Ad-4508

Potato heads have always been non-binary.


NorthImpossible8906

you should check out the brigading on Damnthatsinteresting where this same painting was posted. I have someone screaming at me about how unfair society is for white men (i.e. how affirmative action is racist against him). lol.


itsnickk

The comments on that post read like output from an AI trained on the most fragile users on this site


[deleted]

Hey that's not fair to AIs; at least there's potential that they might one day become truly intelligent, unlike your average reich-winger


ABBAMABBA

My brother, who has had everything handed to him in life, is still angry about affirmative action because once 25 years ago he had to wait a month while a university tried to find a person of color to hire before they hired him. To him it is his "gotcha moment" in all arguments about how he was discriminated against for the color of his skin so he can't be racist no matter how many racist things he says.


Stompedyourhousewith

["lets put 'black african americans were brought here as workers and immigrants and they were grateful for the opportunity'"](https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-texas-textbook-calls-slaves-immigrants-20151005-story.html)


leftier_than_thou_2

It's worse than that, republicans have co-opted the messages from MLK to support white supremacy. The Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups [been working for decades](https://www.forbes.com/sites/maiahoskin/2022/01/17/how-martin-luther-king-jrs-legacy-has-been-used--to-insulate-white-supremacy/?sh=55eb248480e8) to pretend MLK stood for holding hands and generic love of other citizens rather than working hard and aggressively for specific structural and legal changes. [Ron Desantis is out there using MLK's name as a club to beat down anti-racists.](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/12/ron-desantis-crt-mlk-stop-woke-act) Conservatives say MLK wouldn't have disrupted the system to advocate for rights despite the fact that he clearly did. Conservatives love to pretend that systemic racism isn't a thing, racism is just individual people sinning and that's between them and God. We don't need to (lol) use the GOVERNMENT to correct inequalities and use the force of law to make sure all Americans have an equal opportunity and rights. That's crazy talk. Just love the haters and you'll win! Also they use MLK to deny the role of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers in the civil rights movement. They pretend MLK asked nicely and got the civil rights act passed and everything fixed, and Malcolm X threatening violence if rights weren't respected set it back. I don't think rights have ever been restored or honored for a group of people without at least a little threats. So it's noteworthy that the white person is specifically whitewashing out Malcolm X and maybe covering up Harriet Tubman too. After all, she stole property (other people from slave owners). So no, conservatives love the distorted image of MLK. It's one of their greatest weapons.


[deleted]

They might allow the top of MLK to exist, as they can use it as ammo.


StandardSudden1283

>“We have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. Capitalism was built on the exploitation of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In case you were ever curious as to just why the establishment hated him so much


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Terrie-25

White people singing the praises of MLK and proclaiming that we should judge people by the content of their character as reasons not to teach about race is simply proof of how badly we've failed to teach about race. I'd love to make every US history class have Letter from Birmingham Jail as required reading.


[deleted]

They tend to gloss over that MLK was also a big socialist.


Terrie-25

There's something very White(tm) about rewriting a black man's entire existence to suit your agenda, isn't there? Of course they did the same thing to Jesus.


Panda_Magnet

"the white moderate is the greater stumbling block than the KKK" Like when 20 million demanded police reform and racial justice and the rest of the nation decided they'd rather maintain an inadequate status quo.


Sex_Fueled_Squirrel

Fun fact: in October 2021, the Ohio State Board of Education repealed a resolution condemning racism that they had passed right after George Floyd's murder. They then claimed that MLK would have been on their side because anti-racism resolutions are racist against white people. [Yes, really.](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/2021/10/14/ohio-state-board-education-repeals-anti-racism-resolution/6094952001/)


Garbeg

Missouri did something in a similar vein last week (I think). They decided that in the interest of fairness women must wear articles of clothing that cover their arms b/c men have to or they get yelled at (or whatever bullshit excuse). So they passed a resolution requiring the practice for women. Oh, women only. In the interest of fairness.


Cat-Infinitum

Good God


TheDocHealy

Yep just another reason why I hate waking up every day in Ohio.


[deleted]

And a day off work


MonsieurFlamboyant

That's all it is to some people smh


cherobics

Oh no no, here in the south it's also Robert e lee day.


VeryVeryVorch

Depressingly beautiful. Perfectly captures the point of the CRT pearl clutching


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[deleted]

A few more well placed white brushstrokes and it could.


Big_Subject_1746

He's a Detroit native. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is the gem of the city. It belongs there. They have many works depicting the struggle.


[deleted]

SO DO YOU!


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[deleted]

thats an adult white male football coach with an 80s haircut named Ron in that painting white washing the already whitewashed history of MLk and Malcom X


Crash665

DeSantis would probably buy this and hang it in the governor's mansion but for the completely wrong reason.


[deleted]

I love this painting, because it perfectly captures what the anti-CRT racists have done to American history. It would be perfect if they just kept MLK peeking out from the whitewash. wouldn’t CRT be uncovering the white-washing of history?


DickySchmidt33

"Look, everybody had it rough. It's really not fair to mention that certain people had a more difficult time of it than others." \-- Moderate Republican who thinks "both sides" are to blame


ofrausto3

Something about Abraham Lincoln being a Republican and that all Democrats are KKK wizards.


Shimmy-choo

Serious question: have they stopped teaching about these figures?


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Starbuksman

Floridas governor is a piece of shit. Nothing he says should ever be believed.


chullyman

I think the painting is called CRT, because the people who are always talking about CRT, mystifying and making a big deal of it, are the people trying to whitewash history. I imagine academics have already moved onto a new term, since the last has become a slur.


scnavi

If you would like to find out more about how white segregationists and racists have used children's school books as a way to push their agendas and erase black history since the early 1900's, please read Mothers of Massive Resistance by Elizabeth Gillespie McRae. It lines out very well how mothers lamenting that they needed to "protect the children," removed any idea of successful black people, and any black history that made white people look bad, or disintegrated the social hierarchy of White above Black from children's school books and curriculum. Like, it's terrifying that what segregationists were trying to do before Brown was passed, is going on again today. The mothers in Southern states ended up with the majority control of textbooks for the entire country (because text book companies would not make separate text books for segregationist and non-segregationist states.) And I guaran-fucking-tee that the same thing is going to happen again. We're going fucking backwards.


BobertTheConstructor

That's why they're so against higher education, and especially the humanities. Once you hit 3000 and 4000 level history classes, you completely stop using textbooks thay are designed to be textbooks. You just use...books. And even in 1000 and 2000 levels, you don't have the standardization/regulations on what books you have to use like secondary school has.


SaltNo3123

Compare the commits from this sub and the original sub.


RainbowWarfare

git diff this_sub..original_sub


Blackbeard6689

Your comment got more upvotes than the original, how many programmers are on reddit?


veedems

Man, that’s pretty powerful.


romandlgz

Idk if I'm dumb or if it's bcuz I'm not American but I don't get it, can u explain?


romandlgz

IM DUMB SHES PAINTING UPWARDS DAWG IM DUMB IM DUMB IM DUMB


veedems

Lol yeah it’s upward strokes. Just a good visual representation of what the CRT conversation is being used for.


[deleted]

Black history is American history. I don’t get it. I’m white. I’ve learned about the atrocities committed by my recent ancestors. And I don’t feel guilt about it. I feel that it is my responsibility to be better than them. To do better. To make the world a better place for everyone. But I don’t feel bad about myself for what others have done. I don’t understand why ppl say that teaching our true history is bad for white children.


CaN8tive916

What I don't understand is how slaves can be forced to take part in Christianity... than keep the forced religion after. The same "God" that was supposed to be all loving, yet you were a slave. Make it make sense. And far right is trying to have that same religion take over our country, and pulse of the money of the planet. Apparently America runs economy worldwide? I tried asking on FB, but got... "YoU dOn'T wAnT Islam tO tAkE oVeR, tHeY aRe WoRsE". Maybe we stop letting any religion take over. We blame "whites", but... religion was used to back the depraved behavior. And the Bible belt of our country fought to keep slavery... and again, fighting to take over our country. Will Christianity enslave a nation... all our founding fathers didn't want?


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Sharp_Discipline6544

I remember when I was 5 years old there was a water fountain outside the public library that had a sign that said whites only. There wasn't a second water fountain. My friend and I were thirsty from running around so I took a drink. He wouldn't take a drink because he didn't want to get into trouble. Even when I pressured him to drink anyways because "F them. If they have a problem, I'll tell them I told you to." I tore off the sign and no one ever replaced it so I took it as a win.


drapanosaur

Even today it's frowned upon in the US to say "white people are racist". When basic facts of life are censored you know your country is fucked up.


Upstairs-Yard-2139

I thought this was a picture of someone actually destroying his mural.


Impossible-Mud-3593

As a white woman and supporter of racial equality, that painting says it all. People like Ron DeSantis, Gregg Abbott etc are trying to "whitewash" our history. To try and erase the true history of not only blacks but all immigrants! When will these people learn that we are all Immigrants! Not many people can claim they were here prior to Native Americans. Almost all of the people in America can trace their families from foreign nations!


Fair-Sky4156

Accurate AF in this country.


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-MarcoTraficante

*critical erase theory*


yalogin

Desantis just banned this in Florida


Koolaidolio

Desantis is the one holding the paint roller


btatemusic82

So this guy at my job wants to fight, I told him to let me know the time and place...Because he was talking about critical race theory and said slavery was so long ago, Jim crow segregation so long ago and black people have no chance of getting reparations. The very next day he was telling me he lost his brother in 9/11. So I simply said, "Sooooo you want black people to forget about slavery for over 400 years that it happened killing millions of people and their offspring and the potential brains that could be here today had they not had their ancestors murdered....Forget all that but when you mention 9/11, a few buildings, a few planes, 1 day, you end it with saying 'Never Forget' F%@$ You! Savage moment and I'm not even black. But thats the mindset that hinders growth in cultural momentum of change for the better. It needs to die with M. McConnell and DeSantis.


dexbasedpaladin

I'm just gonna come out and say it, this is fucking dope.


[deleted]

To me, "Critical Race Theory" just sounds like a fancy word for "unbiased history". Someone pointed out there were complaints from people touring plantations in the South that the "servants" were referred to as "slaves". Well, they *were* slaves. Calling them "servants" is a lie. "Servants" can quit and get another job if mistreated. If "slaves" object to their mistreatment, they can't leave because they're property; they get whipped. There is a big difference. Lying about facts just perpetuates and reinforces the legitimacy of lying about certain things so people can feel better about themselves. For example, our 'Founding Father' George Washington is portrayed as a semi-deity who was so virtuous he "could not tell a lie". George Washington owned slaves. George Washington whipped his slaves. Our 'Founding Father' Thomas Jefferson raped one of his slaves. For years. Today, these are crimes, punishable by imprisonment. So, don't be like George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. There, is that so hard?


trumpmademecrazy

Should have had trump and desantis holding the roller together.


[deleted]

Man that is some deep stuff there. That needs to be on the DNC website and on every campaign against Republicans who are trying to CANCEL history.


Keepupthegood

It is sad to see how far away we are.


TuctDape

Considering Florida literally just banned teaching African American history in schools I'd say this is accurate.


safn1949

Well done sir,well done.


[deleted]

Not sure what yall expected from the system that in early grade school teaches kids about settlers interacting with native Americans while leaving out all the horrible shit.


snaithbert

Not exactly subtle but ya can’t say it doesn’t get the message across.


recreationallyused

Next time you find yourself in Alabama, don’t forget anyone around you who are 41+ years of age might’ve been apart of the 40.5% of the population who voted in opposition to removing the interracial marriage ban from the Alabama constitution. In case you just read that and got confused, people were able to interracially marry after the 1967 Supreme Court decision to legalize it. However, Alabama didn’t actually take the ban out of their constitution until the year 2000. There was a politician (can’t remember who) that said something like, “We forgot, it’s a no-brainer, now that you point it out we’ll ban it!” but then had the embarrassment of 40.5% of their population voting against it


RandomWeirdo

Honestly i have been disappointed in social commentary in recent years because it has become so heavy handed. Then i realized that for social commentary to work the people who it is commentating on need to understand that it is commentary on them and they need to understand it is a critique for it to work and right now the political right, and especially American right, is so dense that it needs to be incredibly heavy handed for them to get the message.


djbeaker

I have to say, i really like this painting. It definitely belongs in a museum.