Thread by @michaelharriot

Wait… what did Whoopi say?

Saying something crazy like Biden or Establishment Democrats ended apartheid would be easily to dismantle.

A thread:

https://twitter.com/viksoho/status/1409582785510051841

One of the reasons we don’t know what’s going on now is because we don’t understand history. Some Folks seriously think that Trump is the most racist president ever.

Sheeeit. Ronald Reagan would like a word with you outside.

Ronald Reagan dog whistles were just as loud as Trump’s.

Remember, after living under Reagan for 4 years, in 1984 he got the smallest percentage of the Black vote in history. White voters loved him, though.

He railed about affirmative action, Law & Order & “Welfare queens.”

Reagan originally opposed an MLK holiday because he said MLK was a communist (sound familiar?)

This is why you gotta laugh when people ask “What happened to the Republican Party?”

They’ve ALWAYS been this way

And a lot of folks think that some new “woke” movement has taken over the country.

But really, it’s just the internet. Honestly, a lot of this right-wing backlash is because white people can see and hear what Black people have always been saying about them.

It ain’t new

For instance while Reagan and the Republican Party was demonizing welfare, affirmative action and socialism, (sound familiar?) the Democratic Party should have been pushing for universal healthcare, tax cuts to the wealthy and ending the war on drugs.

Well actually…

Someone was.

People forget that Jesse Jackson was close AF to becoming president.

I know you’re like “close AF?” come on dude.

what if I told you that Jesse won more primaries in ‘88 than Bernie Sanders in 2020? What if I told you Jackson had a bigger percentage of votes?

Unfortunately, white people were REALLY on the Reagan train. They wanted law & order. They were against Marxism and welfare queens.

Meanwhile most Black folks supported Jesse, because his ideas were TOO CRAZY

For instance, he was talking about universal healthcare, criminal justice reform, wealth inequality, taxing the wealthy, student loan forgiveness, reparations… you know… INSANE IDEAS… To white America

Meanwhile, the Democrats chased white voters & lost terribly

What does this any of this have to do with Whoopi?

Well, because he had so much Black support, the Dems knew they needed the votes. So, even though they picked a moderate, the ONLY thing they included in the party’s platform was Jesse Jackson’s anti-apartheid position

You gotta understand, this was a crazy idea. We were in the midst of a Cold War with Russia, and the media told white people that Russia was backing the ANC.

Just like white folks found out about Black Wall Street last week, a lot of whites had never heard of Nelson Mandela

Those who had heard of him had been told he was a terrorist.

But before the “woke”
Movement, there was the “conscious” movement that was taking over Black music.

In 1985, Stevie Wonder dedicated his Oscar to Mandela a lot of white people asked WTF is he talking about?

He was eventually arrested protesting and his music was banned. But here’s the thing: A lot of people were only aware of this situation because civil rights leaders had been lobbying the govt for years and using nonviolent protest

Even the “establishment” politicians in the CBC were holding weekly protests

And in 1984 it finally made it into the Democratic platform.

And guess what happened?

A lot of white people start caring!

Not a lot, though. Because Ronald Reagan said you cant forget that —and I swear this is true—that corporations do a lot for “the blacks”

But in 1986, Dems passed the Anti-apartheid Act that levied sanctions against South African corporations.

It made it through Congress and the Senate hurray!

Reagan vetoed that shit.

The Dems needed Republican support to help override the veto.

Who could convince them?

It would have to be someone on the Democratic side who had been there for a while.

Someone with foreign policy bona fides.

Who, though?

This guy.

And it passed. It was the first time Congress had overridden a presidential veto on foreign police.

But Reagan was so racist, he wouldn’t enforce it. Bush did, tho. And the financial pressure from those sanctions actually helped force De Clerk to the table with the ANC

As @AfricanaCarr says (not in these words, he’s smarter) but who TF made us think we gotta LIKE or trust politicians?

Politicians are A TOOL, the same as a hammer or a socket wrenchI don’t give a fuck about liking my Senator or my needle nose pliers.

If you know me, you know I’m not a blind stan for Democrats or Biden. But some shit, like police reform, healthcare, criminal justice reform, wealth inequality etc…

CANNOT be resolved outside the system through protests and progressivism ONLY.

If your opponent uses the system as a tool, you either face defeat or learn how to use that tool and stop trying bring a safety pin to a gunfight.

So, in this case, Whoopi was right.

Facts.

To be clear, The US didn’t end apartheid, South Africans did

MLK & Civil Rights protests didn’t give us voting rights.

Black Lives Matter protests won’t end police brutality.

The system needs activists

Activists need tools