I think in light of so many people complaining they had never heard of the Tulsa massacre that it’s time for people to admit to, and address, a failure within themselves: a lack of historical and cultural curiosity and interest in their own nation.

While it is true that many schools, if not most, did not teach about Tulsa, the information IS, and HAS BEEN, out there… and even some school libraries carried books with this information as did our public libraries. We are all a part of the problem when we fail to pursue knowledge.

This massacre and others should not be the “big shock” it seems to be- more people should have known about it even if it was not taught in school. The history of our country is not “boring” or “dry” but compelling- and so much a part of who and what we really are that more people SHOULD have been aware of Tulsa and other events.

I had the good fortune of having a father who believed in knowing complete history- he was Mississippi born and bred, and had seen a lot of ugly things in his lifetime… when I was in my teens he gifted me one Christmas with an amazing book that held within it the chronology of the United States. It not only included the Tulsa massacre, but Colfax, Wilmington, Elaine Ark (about 200 deaths, if I recall?), Rosewood and a few more.

That’s what drove me to take Black studies and Black Literature and Poetry and introduced me to the works of Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and others and the power Riot Rimes book…

Pursuing knowledge of our deeper history also led to learning the story of the treatment of the indigenous peoples…and compelled me to study the history of the US and the trail of broken treaties and genocide. It is still important that people understand the treaties between the US government and the First People nations were, and remain legal documents unless a mutual agreement to undo these treaties has been established. Until that time, the treaties are legal, binding documents that guarantee rights and territories to First people nations.

Coupling that with studies in the subordination and oppression of women in religion, the legal system, the economic system and the culture all pushed me into writing about culture and politics and how they shape our mindsets and perceptions.

And then, working for a Japanese family, I was led to the history of Japanese, Chinese and other Asian and East Asian people as they came to America. And then, the Irish….the Romany… the list goes on.

I also feel I had some exceptional teachers who inspired me to be willing to continue learning all my life… more, they helped me discover the hidden chapters in the Book of Human History- those chapters that deal with the dark side of human nature across the planet- and the people who stand up and declare “This, I will not allow to happen to another”.

I hope that we ALL come to be inspired to want to read about, ponder and consider the history of the nation and how too often, fear and prejudice has driven our domestic policies, and infects our political ideologies and makes us vulnerable to manipulation by demagogues and populists and ignorant of what other citizens have endured because of it…

…and then, go on to the study the complete history of the story of humankind and all its falls and triumphs, the worst of us and the best, that we might choose more wisely and kindly in the future.

https://ourworldindata.org/genocides

© 2021