mekka okereke :verified:
Happy #BlackHistoryMonth !
I'm still not onto Black history. I'm still working through white US history.
Q: Why do Black folk get so upset when people ask them if they live in this neighborhood? I saw a Black stranger in my building and I just asked him if he lived here and can I see 3 forms of government ID, and now I'm the racist? How? I voted for Obama! Twice! Why are Black folk so sensitive about this?
A: Racism. This is a legacy of slavery and ethnic cleansing. Seriously.
sapphire
Syphilia Morgenstierne
@mekkaokereke Calling this *white history* is nail on. It really is. It's our responsibility. It's our own white relatives who have done all this.
I have been in black neighbourhoods more times than I can count and never, absolutely never have I felt uncomfortable, and I've also seen how *rightly scared* black people have been *forced into* feeling whenever there is a white majority.
mekka okereke :verified:
"Our fire department has always worn white hoods!" is a little too on the nose.
As an anti-racist white person living in the US, your task is to understand this chain of violence escalation, and your part in it. You can simply choose not to participate.
As a Black person, it's useful to know that as WW2 wore on, the terrifying effect of the Stukka wore off. That sound just conveniently tells you where the sky Nazis are. And the drag from the sirens made the Stukka slower and more vulnerable.🤡🤷🏿♂️
mekka okereke :verified:
This makes the Ohio fire dept siren the perfect dog whistle, pun intended.
If I were to play Stukka dive bomb sounds outside the window of the geriatric wing of the Veterans' Admin every day, people would understand why that could be traumatic.
But a sundown siren in Vermilion, Ohio every day at 6pm is not understood to be traumatic.🙂🙃
Ohio is a state with a history of racist lynchings, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and sundown towns. Sundown towns near Vermilion absolutely did use a 6pm siren.
mekka okereke :verified:
But the Nazis kept the sirens, because they knew the terrifying psychological effect that it had on soldiers on the ground.
Movie scene of Stukka sound from soldiers' perspective, with Doppler effect and increasing volume as plane passes.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WygmbuU_78c
The bomb itself could only harm a small number of people, but the siren's threat of such an accurate bomb, imminently arriving, changed the behavior of tens of thousands.
For some, Stukka sounds caused lasting trauma after the war.
mekka okereke :verified:
One of the most accurate bombers in WW2 was the German Stukka. It dove in a steep parabola before dropping its bombs. The Nazis put an air siren on the plane. The faster the plane, the louder the siren and the higher the pitch.
Stukka pilots hated the siren! Early versions couldn't be turned off, so they would have to listen to it the whole flight. Annoying!
Computer game Stukka bombing a bridge:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/czSiTEL62Ms
mekka okereke :verified:
There's a town in Ohio where the Fire Department blares a siren at 6:00 p.m. Black people don't like that. Young white people don't understand, because to them, it's just a siren?
But people that know white US history, know that there were hundreds of sundown towns that blared a similar siren at 6:00 p.m. This was intentional terrorism against Black people.
The siren meant that if you were Black and in the town after 6pm, you could be beaten or killed.
The Purge IRL, but only for Black folk.
mekka okereke :verified:
Carolyn Bryant lied about Emmett Till, escalated up the chain of violence to her husband, sat in the car with him as they drove around looking for Emmett, allowed that child to be kidnapped, tortured and murdered, and then lied about it in court.
She hasn't even been charged with a crime.
The other murderers were also acquitted.
The authorities know where she lives. There's no statute of limitations on her crime. We just don't want to prosecute her. We like the chain, just not where it leads.
mekka okereke :verified:
Through US history, groups like the NRA have sold the importance of having a gun to protect yourself from Black intruders. Before the advent of smartphones, we would often hear stories brave white folk protecting their community from prowlers.
What Black folk knew before smartphones, and before Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, or Emmett Till, is that many of these incidents were just murder by white people participating in the chain of violence to control Black movement and behavior.
mekka okereke :verified:
Participating in this chain of violence has not changed much in the past 100 years. The NextDoor app is a fancy way to either find your lost cat, or to police the movements of Black people.
Ahmaud Arbery was murdered by 3 white men with no authority who wanted to detain him under that 1863 citizens arrest law from the civil war.
mekka okereke :verified:
Many white folk don't even know this history of why they feel so comfortable asking a Black person to prove that they belong in an area. But they participate in it.
If you are white in the US, think of how many times *in your entire life* that a Black citizen with no authority whatsoever, walked up to you, detained you, and demanded that you show ID.
The number of times is likely to be close to zero, even if you live in a majority Black neighborhood. It just doesn't happen in reverse. 🤷🏿♂️
mekka okereke :verified:
This chain of violence was used to maintain "sundown towns," entire cities and counties where Black people could be beaten or killed, just for being there after dark.
https://justice.tougaloo.edu/map/
Segregation was created and maintained by violence on an unimaginable scale. Here's just one county:
As in the time of slavery, and Black codes, and Jim crow, white men that kill Black people while acting as part of this chain of violence, are legally shielded from prosecution.
mekka okereke :verified:
After slavery was abolished in 1865, slave codes evolved into "Black codes," brutal laws that governed what Black folk could or could not do. Slave patrols evolved into official Black patrols (AKA the Police force) or unofficial Black patrols like the Ku Klux Klan, also formed in 1865. It was an eventful year. 🤷🏿♂️
Any white man was allowed and expected to stop any Black person and interrogate them to make sure that they were not up to sneaky Black stuff.
mekka okereke :verified:
The Black codes evolved into Jim Crow, brutal laws that governed what Black folk could or could not do. Between the police, the KKK and the white citizens' councils, there were lots of official and unofficial groups policing Black folks' movement.
White folk could harass Black people themselves, or they could escalate up the chain of violence, either the official one, or the unofficial one. "I'll call the police on you!" Or "I'll call the Klan!" Or "I'll call my husband and his brother on you!"
mekka okereke :verified:
During the civil war, many Southern states codified into law this expectation that all white men should be on the lookout for Black people sneaking around, living life free and stuff. States like Georgia brought their "citizens arrest" law into existence in 1863 for this exact reason.
"Now we are all slave patrol!"
("We" means "white people.")
mekka okereke :verified:
During slavery there were slave patrols. Slave patrols enforced the "slave codes," brutal laws that dictated what slaves could or could not do, and where they could exist. Slave patrols were formed of white slave owners and non-slave owning citizens.
Any white man was allowed and expected to stop any Black person and interrogate them to make sure that they're not up to sneaky Black stuff.
CrustyB
Woggy's Zeonic Frolicks
Autism Simulator 2070
Chris ABRAHAM
@BarrenPlanet @mekkaokereke
>Our Black comrades - mostly out of desperation - have set us that very low bar for allyship.
I agree with you but have you ever met a generic white American? They'll put ==>With Her ==> stickers everywhere and then vote for Trump every time.
Also, tell everyone about the boosters they got and actually being vaccine free.
People pander and appease and assume "folks will wear themselves out with their tantrums, let's just wait it out" than actually any real change.
BarrenPlanet
@chris @mekkaokereke Until we address the asymmetric power relationships, the *system* of white supremacy will persist. While, as people with white skin, we may not be able to do anything much about it as individuals, we can call it out every time we see it.
Our Black comrades - mostly out of desperation - have set us that very low bar for allyship.
We must step over it.
Chris ABRAHAM
@mekkaokereke
I wonder what will happen at the end of the day? Will there ever be any actual compliance further/beyond than lip service? Probably not. If I know my country.
@BarrenPlanet
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