Joe Biden’s Day in Tulsa: Historical Revisionism Out in the Open

This week President Joe Biden’s administration was cheered by the media and the progressive brigade as he and his team exclaimed to the crowds of adorring journalists and press junkies that white supremacist terrorism is the “greatest domestic threat” facing the stability of the nation. This messaging was all the more dramatic when the backdrop of one of his recent speeches was Tulsa, Oklahoma - a city that 100 years ago experienced horrendous riots and civil strife has, in recent years, been cited more and more as one of the worst examples of white-on-black racism in 20th Century America.

Dubbed “Black Wall Street” today, Tulsa, OK, was the location of horrible race-rioting that was spurred on after a messy chain of events surrounding the trial of a young African American boy who was accused of accosting one of the local white women. The subsequent trial, conflict between local whites and blacks, and the conflict and shooting between a white protester and black gunman in front of the Tulsa courthouse would lead to the subsequent razing of Greenwood. A tragedy, undoubtedly. A riot, absolutely. But a massacre, as Joe Biden describes ever so impassionately? Hardly.

You’ll only ever hear about the first part of this story, where a young black, naive and completely innocent shoe-shiner by the name of Dick Rowland was accused of trying to assault the white elevator operator, Sarah Page. What actually happened in the elevator at the Drexel Building is still unclear to everyone, even the Tulsa Historical Society, and it is unlikely that we’ll ever know the full truth. But what we do know is that as Rowland was being picked up by the police, the local newspaper jumped on the story and reported Rowland as trying to commit sexual assault against Page. This report, whether accurate or not, would start the snowballing of this individual case into the shooting and eventual riot that we all know of today.

How unlike the media to completely inflame an issue and make everything worse... absolutely nothing like we’re used to in our current day and age - we all know that when it comes to reporting on sensitive topics like inter-ethnic or race issues, the media takes an incredibly balanced and informed perspective!

Unfortunately, like most things in 20th century history, you’ll only hear one side of the story unless you actively dig deep enough for yourself. The violence in Tulsa is no exception - the majority of people living today have likely only heard of the Tulsa Riots because of popular television programs like HBO’s Watchmen and Lovecraft Country using it as a plot device; both of these shows rely far too heavily on racial conflict to convey a narrative - something which may have been “groundbreaking” for The Blind Side but only reeks of exhaustion now.

‍

Going back to how this started, with an interaction gone wrong between two people in an elevator, I find it incredibly interesting to note how we are primed to view the circumstances of Rowland and Page’s interaction. In all accounts I read through, they all assumed Rowland’s complete innocence. Despite all accounts even admitting to not knowing the full story, they’re still quick to jump on one side over the other. I can’t help but wonder if this is a phenomenon of post-60’s racial politics - of course, in the contemporary lens of the post-To Kill a Mockingbird era, white women accusing African American men is seen as something that shouldn’t be taken seriously - but rather as a byproduct ‘white hysteria’.

But back in the 1920’s this simply wasn’t the case - and there could be no possible way for people on the ground to understand the full context of the situation, or even consider this as an outcome. Trying to ascribe modern racial sensibilities to people living a century ago is asinine. But again, you won’t hear any of the nuance or fully unwashed accounts of events from mainstream sources, as it conveniently leaves out the inflammatory actions and accountability that can be placed on all sides during this conflict - and make no mistake, Tulsa was hardly a “massacre” as is the popular charge now.

The official toll for the Tulsa riots claim that 10 whites, and 26 blacks were killed in the total course of events. Many more hundreds, if not thousands, had their businesses and livelihoods destroyed or dramatically changed for the worse.

It’s incredibly ironic that when compared to our own experiences during the Summer Riots of 2020, we are shown just how indiscriminately the violence and destruction of Race Riots really are. 

Presently, in both political and academic circles, there are many who argue and suggest that the official death and casualty toll for the riots are inaccurate, with the real number actually in the hundreds, and accounts of planes being used to bomb businesses in Greenville.

President Joe Biden’s most recent speech in Tulsa mentioned many of these claims, unabashedly and without any hint of hesitation or balance. It was a long winded speech which shifted all blame and accountability from all of those who took part in the riot, to the idea of “White America”. 

Nevermind that the accounts of ‘survivors’ who witnessed these more dramatic, almost Hollywood-esque scenes were taken years, if not decades after the actual event. No matter for the lack of mass graves that have been found, no signs of concentration camps akin to that of Nazi Germany, no private flight logs or pilots that have come forward showing evidence of planes being used to bomb anything, as the President (wrongly) implied. All that the “massacre” narrative has to stand on is a collection of anecdotes, hearsay, anonymous witnesses, and parables that cannot be independently verified other than the fact that the story “sounds plausible” to a handful of people.

‍

But why, might you ask, am I getting hung up on Tulsa specifically?

Well, for a few very good reasons, which I’m sure you’ll find compelling:

First off the bat, it is yet another a prime example of the madness that continues to ensue in this country; especially the black victimhood narrative that is exhaustingly perpetuated by the media and political class to garner votes, intimidate rivals, or shut down any form of civil discourse that is uncomfortable to status-quo. The political heads in DC, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley know exactly what they’re doing when they are stoking the flames of racial grievance, and unfortunately due to the lackluster standards of American public education, there are more than enough busy idiots to fill the middle-managing roles and push the various papers that reinforce this narrative.

When I emphasize “black victimhood” being a problem, I’m not doing so lightly, nor am I doing it from a place of ignorance or misunderstood wingnuttery. 

African Americans have every right to feel undercut, misrepresented, and taken advantage of by the American system. It is an undeniable fact that this is the case. But by being fed this victim narrative that the ‘system’ in this country has continually spat in the eye of black Americans, and eating it up without a second thought, African Americans are voluntarily creating another mechanism that is a roadblock to progress and peace in their communities. 

Instead of taking some level of responsibility for things like high crime and drug rates, poor education, or holding the true criminals and abusers of black Americans to account (politicians and financiers), it is far easier to create a grand narrative of the ‘Evil Whites” who have always been out to ruin black excellence, bring forward fresh martyrs for this new religion, and bend or break anyone that refuses to believe it. 

The apparent divinity of George Floyd, the ‘undeniability’ of a Tulsa Massacre, the promise and hope of a black-dominated future… black victimhood and jingoism has become a cult, with its foundational myths, its prophets and martyrs, and its Holy Land - Tulsa, Oklahoma... a corner of a street in Minnesota... Compton, perhaps?

Worse still, the people spoon-feeding this narrative to the outraged masses are the very same people who think nothing of the plight of low-income and vulnerable communities, and would happily help repeat this cycle of destruction if it means they are able to grift their way to a form of mediocre security in life.

The truth is that white and black Americans have far more in common with each other than they do with the elites who control them and pit them against each other - but as long as the racial grievance beast is still getting fed, nothing will change for either group of people.

Back to the point; when politicians start bringing up old wounds in history that’s not for some passive form of remembrance, there’s usually some malicious motive, self-interest or agenda which drives them to do it.

When the Israelis engage in this historical revisionism about “historical claims” in the Golan Heights  to justify their forceful expulsion of Palestinians, it is wrong and condemned.

When Xi Jinping and the Chinese State use the “Century of Humiliation” to justify their expansion and predatory politics, it is wrong.

Having an historical casus belli to start a war, enact a policy, or engage in a social movement has typically never been a good reason to do something - usually leading to shortsighted blunders, mass misery, and death.

If the ‘Tulsa Massacre’ was an intrinsic part of American identity that the political class are now claiming that it is, it’s reverberations would’ve already been felt by all Americans despite the passage of time, and it would be far more well known to far more. 

However it may seem, this simply isn’t the case. The Tulsa Riots were hardly discussed in Oklahoma years afterwards, let alone the rest of the country until it became convenient to do so. Making it an issue to revisit now, 100 years later in a time that is especially sensitive to race-relation in America is going to do more harm than good, and sew further division. 

Besides, I think anyone who can read between the lines can see what is really going on. It suits the political and media elites to talk about Tulsa now, because now they are able to cite it as a boogeyman event to combat the new foe of “white supremacist terror” they have desperately been trying to manufacture.

They’ll change the language and rhetoric around the event to shift the blame, they’ll intentionally leave out details, not verify witnesses and skew facts that fit their narrative. This is a tactic which has been practiced time and time again, and even still to this day happens all the time - let us not forget the outrageously false media narratives surrounding Trayvon Martin or Mike Brown. 

Joe Biden knows that this Tulsa ‘Massacre’ narrative is, how he’d say, “Malarkey!”.

His team, the DNC, the business and tech elites that push this narrative also know that it’s a long stream of bullshit.

But the one thing these elites will never do is tell the truth - and the longer they delay that truth, or try and skew it for their own agendas, the harder the truth is going to boot them up the arse when the time comes.

(Originally published for The Mallard UK: https://mallarduk.com/joe-bidens-day-in-tulsa-historical-revisionism-out-in-the-open-ilija-dokmanovic/ )

‍