Three generations is a long time, but some wounds carry on generation after generation, despite everyone’s best intentions.
Such is the case with the Tulsa Race Riots (aka the Tulsa Race Massacre), since the rioters were White and the victims were mostly Black. Estimates of the dead run from 30 to 300, and some eyewitnesses believe many more were killed, carried away in train boxcars and buried in a mass grave. No one knows for sure.
The riot was mainly a case of “have-nots” killing and robbing the “haves.” Tulsa’s prosperous African American neighborhood, the Greenwood District, was generally known as “Black Wall Street.” More than 1,400 homes and businesses were burned, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless, all on the assumption that a young Black man had raped a 17-year-old White woman. The rioters didn’t know the woman or even care about her; she was just an excuse for white thugs to destroy an affluent Black neighborhood.
Fast forward 99 years to today, and another type of riot is brewing in Oklahoma. This time, it’s not well-armed poor Whites attacking well-to-do Black families out of jealousy and rage. No, today’s riots are carefully planned and orchestrated, all aimed at dividing America and breaking democracy with little or nothing to do with actual racial issues.
Black individuals have been making great gains in education and finances in recent years. Unemployment rates are way down among all races. No one – especially not Black or White business owners and working-class Blacks and Whites – wants riots in Oklahoma. Left up to the people of Oklahoma, the riots would be relegated to large coastal cities, certainly not part of life in Oklahoma. But agitators and political hacks on both sides of the color aisle believe they have a lot to gain from channeling all of America, not just Oklahoma, into riots and civil disorder; they don’t care how many innocent citizens lose their homes or die, so long as they gain votes or power.
America has come a long way since the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 – not far enough for a lot of people, but a long way from the atrocities of those post-World War I days. Corrupt officials and politicians don’t care what color the citizens they brutalize or steal from happen to be. Being poor is the easiest crime for the rich and powerful to identify. Today’s rioters don’t really care who their victims are. They don’t leave Black businesses or the homes of Black residents untouched in their riots. No, they need victims to make their actions newsworthy, so they can sow fear and dissension.
Today’s agitators don’t want Americans fat and happy; they need America in turmoil to get their agendas across. They would love to create another Tulsa or Oklahoma City race riot, preferably one that destroys White lives and businesses, but a riot is a riot, and any victim is good enough for sensationalized news coverage. The 1921 riot destroyed more than 1,400 homes and businesses, and nearly 10,000 people were left homeless. The antifa thugs, mostly made up of White criminals, would be happy to settle for a fourth that number today.
Given the higher poverty and crime rates of Tulsa and Oklahoma City, riots will probably be part of our norm until city officials crack down and send the perpetrators to prison. The sad part is that easily influenced young people of both skin colors will happily destroy their own lives and futures on the say-so of politicians and rabble-rousers who consider them little more than cannon fodder for their private agendas.
Mark Stepp is a retired senior technical writer and former newspaper reporter/editor. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and a graduate of Northeastern State University with a BA in education and journalism.
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