This narrative that black people who want an accurate reflection of history are "angry and resentful" leaves us with one logical takeaway:
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
White people don't want to know history because they can't handle the truth.
A thread. pic.twitter.com/YXDoUQReRU
First, let's be clear: The Founders were racists.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
They weren't "products of their time." They KNEW slavery was wrong. They KNEW it was inhumane.
Gouverneur Morris, who literally wrote the Preamble said this during the Constitutional debates pic.twitter.com/CoOODu5BQQ
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James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, "thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men."
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
Even Lincoln was a white supremacist. That's not my opinion. He said it himself when asked about freeing slaves: pic.twitter.com/Rz1T3RfxRw
In the only book Thomas Jefferson ever wrote, "Notes on the State of Virginia," he dedicated pages to explaining why black people were inferior.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
Washington knew slavery was wrong but wouldn't manumit his slaves. He stalked Ona Judge, a runaway, until the day he died.
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BUT here is the thing:
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
When these truths are pointed out by black people or actual historians, it doesn't mean we want to erase everything they did. It doesn't mean we don't think the founding fathers' legacy should be deleted.
We just want y'all to tell the truth.
The problem is that many white people believe that being a racist is an all-encompassing trait that stains everything else a person does. They believe it is an evil feeling that lives inside the heart.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
I do not.
I think racism is a noun.
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For instance:
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
The fact that police disproportionately shoot black people is racist. It does not mean that individual officers go to work hoping to kill black people. It means they work for a system that disproportionately target black Americans.
That is racism.
Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington and others did not explicitly say they hated black people.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
They just created a system that dehumanized black people and treated black people as property. And, while we often focus on slavery, it was not just about slavery.
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White supremacy is the reason there is an electoral college There were more enslaved people in the south, which would give the South a political advantage if they counted slaves as whole human beings.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
The founders' solution?
Count them as 3/5ths of a person.
White supremacy is the reason every state has different voting laws.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
Some states allowed free black landowners to vote, which was unthinkable to other states.
The founders' solution?
Every state gets to set its own rules.
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White supremacy is the reason behind America's military might.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
Southern states didn't think the federal government should be able to raise an army because they feared black soldiers might invade the South to free their black brothers.
The Founders' solution?
The 2nd Amendment pic.twitter.com/MqUdnGG2p9
So, instead of facing these historical truths and force us to reconcile with how this country has treated black people and indigenous people since its inception, we'd rather lie about it.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
And, in the vacuum created by this intentional whitewashing, racism flourishes
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Why wouldn't you hate the idea of defunding the police if you didn't know that American policing descended from slave-catching rules?
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
Why wouldn't you think Confederate statues are monuments to white supremacist traitors if you believe the Civil War was about "states' rights?"
Why wouldn't you think black people are lazy and less intelligent if you didn't know about redlining and how it still influences school funding?
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
Why wouldn't you be against reparations if you didn't know how black ppl were excluded from the GI Bill, the New Deal & gov't loans?
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Why wouldn't you think a speech at Mount Rushmore was a great idea if you didn't know how America stole the land from the Sioux after signing a treaty that said it belonged to them?
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
But white people are right about one thing:
Confederate monuments do represent history.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
They represent the historical lengths this country has gone to whitewash the past. They represent the lie of "liberty and justice for all." They represent their willingness to ignore racism in order to honor whiteness in all its glory.
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Removing these symbols of white supremacy has nothing to do with anger or resentment.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
If black people ever unleashed their anger, there is not a sword in the world that wouldn't be wet with throatblood.
But we know that's not the answer.
There is only one way.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
See, a long time ago, we read another activist explained exactly how to eliminate racism and give our people justice.
It came from an admittedly whitewashed historical document but it still has a few relevant points, especially when he said:
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"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free:"
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) July 5, 2020
The Obama Diary 