Thread by @michaelharriot

This narrative that black people who want an accurate reflection of history are "angry and resentful" leaves us with one logical takeaway:

White people don't want to know history because they can't handle the truth.

A thread.

First, let's be clear: The Founders were racists.

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

James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, "thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men."

Even Lincoln was a white supremacist. That's not my opinion. He said it himself when asked about freeing slaves:

In the only book Thomas Jefferson ever wrote, "Notes on the State of Virginia," he dedicated pages to explaining why black people were inferior.

Washington knew slavery was wrong but wouldn't manumit his slaves. He stalked Ona Judge, a runaway, until the day he died.

BUT here is the thing:

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.

I do not.

I think racism is a noun.

For instance:

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.

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.

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.

The founders' solution?

Count them as 3/5ths of a person.

White supremacy is the reason every state has different voting laws.

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.

White supremacy is the reason behind America's military might.

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

These were GREAT ideas.

They were also racist ideas.

Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, et al were great founders who WERE ALSO white supremacists.

America is a great country and IT IS ALSO racist. Both things can be true.

I'll explain by using whitesplainers' favorite subject:

Martin Luther King was a great civil rights leader.
Martin Luther King Jr. cheated on his wife.

Both things are true. One does not negate the other.

Now Martin Luther King Jr. studied the teachings of Gandhi, who was a racist. There's no way that King didn't know this.

He was able to view the WHOLE TRUTH of history and reconcile it with Gandhi's philosophy just like he understood that white people were racist and STILL believed he could change them.

Wait... What?

King would never say that.

Not that whitewashed MLK you read about

For instance, I think Bill Cosby was one of the greatest storytellers who ever lived.

AND I think he is a serial rapist.

One does not negate the other.

Personally, I cannot honor Bill Cosby as a comedian because TO ME, the rapist part makes him too evil to celebrate.

Now "Racist" is a thing that people are — like a farmer or a cowboy or a Messiah or a human being or a serial rapist.

It is up to the individual to determine whether or not someone who is that particular kind of noun deserves contempt, shame or forgiveness.

I am not OK with MLK cheating on his wife but I am willing to overlook it when I weigh it against the good he brought into the world. Conversely, because I personally believe that rape is a despicable thing, I can’t fuck with Bill Cosby.

If I was on Twitter caping for Bill Cosby, you can only make 1 of 2 logical conclusions:

1. I didn't know Cosby was a serial rapist

2. I know, but I don't care.

So, when I see white people defending Confederate monuments and slaveowners, I can only make 2 conclusions:

1. They don't know the founding fathers were serial rapists, murderers and enslavers; they don't know Confederates were white supremacist traitors to America; they don't know about the atrocities against indigenous people or:

2. They know, but they don't care.

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.

And, in the vacuum created by this intentional whitewashing, racism flourishes

Why wouldn't you hate the idea of defunding the police if you didn't know that American policing descended from slave-catching rules?

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?

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?

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?

But white people are right about one thing:

Confederate monuments do represent history.

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.

Removing these symbols of white supremacy has nothing to do with anger or resentment.

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.

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:

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free:"