Over there in The New York Times actor Tom Hanks has a piece on the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. The headline:
Tom Hanks: You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre
Among other things, Mr. Hanks is making the point that American history ignores major moments or events that involve black Americans. He says that he had never heard of the Tulsa Massacre until he read an article about it in The Times. That would be this article right here.
[adsanity_group num_ads=”1″ align=”aligncenter” num_columns=”1″ group_ids=”2381″/]
He writes, in part, this:
“The truth about Tulsa, and the repeated violence by some white Americans against Black Americans, was systematically ignored, perhaps because it was regarded as too honest, too painful a lesson for our young white ears. So, our predominantly white schools didn’t teach it, our mass appeal works of historical fiction didn’t enlighten us, and my chosen industry didn’t take on the subject in films and shows until recently. It seems white educators and school administrators (if they even knew of the Tulsa massacre, for some surely did not) omitted the volatile subject for the sake of the status quo, placing white feelings over Black experience — literally Black lives in this case.
How different would perspectives be had we all been taught about Tulsa in 1921, even as early as the fifth grade? Today, I find the omission tragic, an opportunity missed, a teachable moment squandered. When people hear about systemic racism in America, just the use of those words draws the ire of those white people who insist that since July 4, 1776, we have all been free, we were all created equally, that any American can become president and catch a cab in Midtown Manhattan no matter the color of our skin, that, yes, American progress toward justice for all can be slow but remains relentless. Tell that to the century-old survivors of Tulsa and their offspring. And teach the truth to the white descendants of those in the mob that destroyed Black Wall Street.
Today, I think historically based fiction entertainment must portray the burden of racism in our nation for the sake of the art form’s claims to verisimilitude and authenticity…
…Should our schools now teach the truth about Tulsa? Yes, and they should also stop the battle to whitewash curriculums to avoid discomfort for students. America’s history is messy but knowing that makes us a wiser and stronger people.”
All of this is well said. I agree. Yet having said that, Tom Hanks himself has a curious silence about a major portion of American history that liberals just somehow, someway for some reason cannot bring themselves to discuss.
[adsanity_group num_ads=”1″ align=”aligncenter” num_columns=”1″ group_ids=”2381″/]
Let me mention a few of the things Tom Hanks doesn’t mention – and I suspect there will be no liberals anywhere in Hollywood making a movie or TV show about these. (I wrote in detail about these in 2008 here in The American Spectator) so I will just include a few facts of history that Tom Hanks (and for that matter Joe Biden in his Tulsa speech) did not mention in his Times piece.
- There is no reference to the number of Democratic Party platforms supporting slavery. There were 6 from 1840-1860.
- There is no reference to the number of Democratic Party platforms that either supported segregation outright or were silent on the subject. There were 20, from 1868-1948.
- There is no reference to the number of Democratic presidents who owned slaves. There were 7 from 1800-1861.
- There is no reference to “Jim Crow” as in “Jim Crow laws,” nor is there reference to the role Democrats played in creating them. These were the post-Civil War laws passed enthusiastically by Democrats in that pesky 52-year part of the DNC’s missing years. These laws segregated public schools, public transportation, restaurants, restrooms and public places in general (everything from water coolers to beaches). The reason Civil Rights heroine Rosa Parks became famous is that she sat in the front of a “whites only” bus, the “whites only” designation the direct result of Democrats.
- There is no reference to the role of the Ku Klux Klan in the Democratic Party, which, according to Columbia University historian Eric Foner became “a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party.” Nor is there reference to the University of North Carolina historian Allen Trelease’s description of the Klan as the “terrorist arm of the Democratic Party.”
- There is no reference to the fact Democrats opposed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The Thirteenth banned slavery. The Fourteenth effectively overturned the infamous 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott decision (made by Democrat pro-slavery Supreme Court justices) by guaranteeing due process and equal protection to former slaves. The Fifteenth gave black Americans the right to vote.
- There is no reference to the fact that it was Democrats who segregated the federal government of the United States, specifically at the direction of progressive champion and Democratic President Woodrow Wilson upon taking office in 1913. Wilson, by the way, was a segregationist who showcased the film The Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the Klan, at a White House screening.
On and on goes the list of the role the most blatant racism played in the history of the Democratic Party – or as I call it the Party of Race.
[adsanity_group num_ads=”1″ align=”aligncenter” num_columns=”1″ group_ids=”2381″/]
I have no doubt that Tom Hanks is sincere. But I also have no doubt that to raise this most serious history of the Democratic Party, a party founded by slave owners and, to this day, a party that cultivates identity politics – the son of segregation – is a serious no-no in Hollywood.
What happened in Tulsa was horrific. But so is the history of the Democratic Party when it comes to race.
Don’t expect Tom Hanks or any other liberal to bring it up. And that’s a shame.
