Post by muggins on May 29, 2020 14:33:55 GMT
I’m British, so still learning about racism in the USA. The info below is copied and pasted from the author Nora McInerny’s FB page. I’ve included the link too
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Hello my fellow white people, would you like to have a little history lesson together?
It's 1931 in Minneapolis, MN when this photo is taken. Look at all these people! What could they be doing posing and smiling on this lawn at 46th and Columbus?
If you guessed that they were a racist mob harassing Edith and Arthur Lee, who purchased a home just a few blocks south of the neighborhood where black people were *supposed* to live, you are correct! The mob grew to over 4,000 violent people, who threw rocks and paint and yes, posed for this photo.
These riots lasted MONTHS — MONTHS! -- and they worked. The Lees moved out in 1933.
I keep looking at this photo and thinking about the people in it. Who are their kids, grandkids, great grandkids? Do they know about this photo? This mob? Do they know how they benefitted from the pain of the Lees and families like them?
Owning property is a way that families build generational wealth, and Minneapolis did its best to make that as hard as possible for black people. Generations later, we have the *lowest home ownership rate in the US* and some of the worst economic disparities between black and white citizens in the United States.
Our main freeways — 35W and 94E — were deliberately build to raze black neighborhoods and physically segregate black and white neighborhoods. Generations later, you can still *see* the effects of this as you drive through the city. Those segregations are still in place.
Still, in Minnesota, black business owners are less likely to receive loans than *less qualified* white applicants.
(https://ncrc.org/study-documents-discrimination-black-entrepreneurs/)
Racism is structural, systemic, insidious. I’m a person whose family history in this city spans generations, and has received unearned generational benefits (many who used the GI bill to get a house without getting any shit, and several who started and ran businesses).
White people often want black people to justify or explain their anger. Don’t do that. Your approval is not needed. Your education is on you.
Instead of asking "but why are they doing this? What does this accomplish?!" Ask yourself what systems created this situation, and why you think *you* know the right way for oppressed people to react.
Instead of thinking you know best, try to learn what you don't yet know.
We are steeped in biases and prejudices we aren't even aware of. It is our job to pull them out from ourselves and one another, over and over again.
Here are some useful links to help you put this week's riots and protests into *some* historical context. I say some because, uh, I'm not a historian I'm a curious person trying to learn, not a credentialed expert trying to teach.
Mapping Prejudice is where I learned the story of the Lee family: www.mappingprejudice.com
The Jim Crow of the North by TPT - Twin Cities PBS is a documentary available FOR FREE here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWQfDbbQv9E
MPD150 has a very extensive history of policing in Minneapolis: www.mpd150.com/wp-content/themes/mpd150/assets/mpd150_report.pdf
/?d=n
Hello my fellow white people, would you like to have a little history lesson together?
It's 1931 in Minneapolis, MN when this photo is taken. Look at all these people! What could they be doing posing and smiling on this lawn at 46th and Columbus?
If you guessed that they were a racist mob harassing Edith and Arthur Lee, who purchased a home just a few blocks south of the neighborhood where black people were *supposed* to live, you are correct! The mob grew to over 4,000 violent people, who threw rocks and paint and yes, posed for this photo.
These riots lasted MONTHS — MONTHS! -- and they worked. The Lees moved out in 1933.
I keep looking at this photo and thinking about the people in it. Who are their kids, grandkids, great grandkids? Do they know about this photo? This mob? Do they know how they benefitted from the pain of the Lees and families like them?
Owning property is a way that families build generational wealth, and Minneapolis did its best to make that as hard as possible for black people. Generations later, we have the *lowest home ownership rate in the US* and some of the worst economic disparities between black and white citizens in the United States.
Our main freeways — 35W and 94E — were deliberately build to raze black neighborhoods and physically segregate black and white neighborhoods. Generations later, you can still *see* the effects of this as you drive through the city. Those segregations are still in place.
Still, in Minnesota, black business owners are less likely to receive loans than *less qualified* white applicants.
(https://ncrc.org/study-documents-discrimination-black-entrepreneurs/)
Racism is structural, systemic, insidious. I’m a person whose family history in this city spans generations, and has received unearned generational benefits (many who used the GI bill to get a house without getting any shit, and several who started and ran businesses).
White people often want black people to justify or explain their anger. Don’t do that. Your approval is not needed. Your education is on you.
Instead of asking "but why are they doing this? What does this accomplish?!" Ask yourself what systems created this situation, and why you think *you* know the right way for oppressed people to react.
Instead of thinking you know best, try to learn what you don't yet know.
We are steeped in biases and prejudices we aren't even aware of. It is our job to pull them out from ourselves and one another, over and over again.
Here are some useful links to help you put this week's riots and protests into *some* historical context. I say some because, uh, I'm not a historian I'm a curious person trying to learn, not a credentialed expert trying to teach.
Mapping Prejudice is where I learned the story of the Lee family: www.mappingprejudice.com
The Jim Crow of the North by TPT - Twin Cities PBS is a documentary available FOR FREE here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWQfDbbQv9E
MPD150 has a very extensive history of policing in Minneapolis: www.mpd150.com/wp-content/themes/mpd150/assets/mpd150_report.pdf
