Thread by @michaelharriot

I'm so tired of the "big government" argument.

For years, I have been working on an economic theory on why people hate "big gov't"—especially in the South.

Here's the answer:

"Small government" allows white people to steal black people's wealth.

ALL WHITE PEOPLE

A thread

https://twitter.com/janbyut/status/1282068509309034496

Now, first, you have to understand that most "big government" haters don't know shit about history.

For instance, if you've ever said anything about racism and politics on social media, I'm sure an airheaded, Republican, Fox News-watcher explained to you that the "Democrats are the party of KKK " and the Republicans "ended slavery and passed Civil Rights and voting rights."

Now, you could explain that the Democratic and Republican party essentially switched positions starting in 1948 and, starting in the 60s, the Republicans became the "state's rights' party" or, instead of wading into that morass, there's a better way to explain the divide:

White Southerners vs everyone else.

You know who ended slavery? Big government.

And it wasn't because of political parties. The NUMBER ONE reason the 13th Amendment made it through the Senate was because the SOUTH COULDN'T VOTE AGAINST IT.

When Congress voted to send the 13th Amendment to the States, the Southern states hadn't been readmitted to the Union.

But what about the GOP & Civil Rights, though? Didn't the GOP pass Civil Rights?

Well, in that specific case, you can just call them a goddamned liar.

Not one Southern Republican Congressman voted for the CRA
Not one Southern Republican Senator t voted for the CRA

REPUBLICANS didn't pass the Civil Rights Act. EVERYONE voted for it...

Except for white people from the South.

BIG GOVERNMENT passed the Civil Rights Act in spite of racist "states rights" Southerners

Here's a breakdown of the votes:

What ended America's "Separate but Equal" policy?

Big government, namely the Supreme Court.

And they did it because racists like Alabama Gov. George Wallace hated...

You know what? I'll let him explain it like he did at his first speech running for president:

"Integration is a matter to be decided by each state. The states must determine if they feel it is of benefit to both races."

He is still the last presidential third-party candidate to win an entire state.

He won Ga., Ala., Miss., La., and Ark.

Why was his racist, anti-big gov't" stance so successful?

Well, he... You know what? I'll let him explain:

Now that there's some background info, let me show you how Small government helps white people steal from black people.

Here's a map of the states with legislation that REQUIRED segregation before Brown v. Board of education. Notice they are all in the South.

It's no coincidence that those states are where the majority of black people lived.

One of the best illustrations of this was a little town called Summerton, SC.

In the 1940s, Summerton's black children had to walk up to NINE miles to get to school

When it rained, they had to wade through a creek or row across a river. Sometimes, randomly, one of the black kids would drown. When they got to school, they had to chop wood for the stove to heat the classroom.

Their schools had no advanced science or math programs.

Meanwhile, the white schools were GREAT

Now, you might be thinking: "Those poor black kids had to go through A LOT because of poverty"

Nah, homey, it was just racism.

These kids weren't poor. Many of these parents had good jobs at a local factory. MOST were employed.

The school district just wouldn't fund their schools.

Now, you're probably thinking: Damn, that's a TERRIBLE way to treat the minority community.

Nah, homey. It was just racism.

Here's the thing you should know about Summerton, and Clarendon County:

It was 75% black.

But if those kids graduated and wanted to go to college, there was ONE PUBLIC university in the state—SC State—that allowed black students.

Meanwhile there were 14 whites-only public colleges in SC

They were stealing black taxpayers' money and giving it to white people.

Now, here's a fact about SC that makes this theft extremely egregious,

In 1776, when America was founded...

In 1865, whenthe 13th Amendment passed...

In 1896 when SC state was founded...

& every year in between, including when they built those 14 whites-only colleges...

South Carolina was a majority-black state.

So basically, the black taxpayers were funding the wealth for white citizens.

And it wasn't just in SC. And it wasn't just in the 40's and 50s, And it wasn't just the South. It was all over AMERICA.

As a matter of fact, most of the state-funded HBCUs in America weren't built by local governments, they were built by BIG GOVERNMENT—specifically, the 2nd Morrill Act, which gave states money to build schools after the Civil War.

Why are there so many HBCUs in the South?

Because a provision of the law said that the schools built with the big government money couldn't discriminate based on race. So, southern "states rights" advocates found a loophole:

They just built separate schools for black people.

That's right. "Big Gov't" funded the HBCUs while the states kept giving black people's tax money to white people.

But it wasn't just about education.

After WWII, "Big Gov't" gave black soldiers the GI bill but "small gov't" segregationists stopped them from getting it.

Because of segregation laws, a Texas Banker said it was "nearly impossible" for a black veteran to use the GI Bill for a mortgage.

But that was just in the south, right?
Well, after WWII, 67,000 veterans built homes with the GI bill in NY and NJ.

Less than 100 were black.

In 1927, the Chicago Real Estate Board made it illegal for whites to sell property to non-whites. By the 1940s, (after WWII) "small government" had banned black people from owning property in 3/4ths of the city.

To be fair, "small gov't" did build low-cost homes for black people

In private, officials called the homes their "ghetto plan" but in public, they referred to it by another name:

Their "housing project."

Home-ownership is the #1 builder of wealth, so it wasn't about keeping black folks out of white communities, it was about theft.

Plus...

The New Deal, perhaps the biggest government program in history, specifically excluded blacks. It built the middle class as we know it today.

Why were blacks excluded?

Well, it was mostly because of "small government."

See, most people will argue that redlining, which specifically excluded black neighborhoods from guaranteed loans, was an example of "big government" racism, and it was...

Because "small gov't" politicians wouldn't have passed it without these provisions

The BIGGEST jobs program in the new deal, the WPA, employed THOUSANDS of black people as supervisors in the North.

Of 100,000 Supervisors in the south, less than 100 were black.

They wanted to keep stealing from the blacks and giving it to the whites.
Now let's go back to SC

Remember Summerton,

Well, the black people in Summerton finally got fed up.

22 black families got together and decided to ask the school board for a bus. After all, the district had THIRTY THREE buses for white kids and black kids had ZERO

Again, Summerton was 75% black.

Now here is the fucked up part:

Superintendent Briggs said no.

So the black parents sued. Alphabetically, the Briggs family was first on the list of plaintiffs. NOT ONCE did they ask to go to school with white people. It was about their money being stolen.

The State of SC delayed the case for years before denying the black parents but they appealed.

When it finally reached the Supreme Court, black people in 4 other states had filed similar cases so they combined all 5 of the cases.

But, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, don't forget that the FIRST argument wasn't about integration.

It was about the black people's money being stolen by small government.

And who stopped it?

Big government.

That's why they hate it.

Now, anyone can feel free to disagree with me, but here is the ultimate proof, by Lee Atwater, the Republican Party operative that CREATED what we call the "Southern Strategy"