Racism is so much a part of American culture that it was featured in everyday household objects. These items were found in countless white households – and you might be surprised by how blatantly racist they were. #PushBlack #BlackHistory 👇🏿
#1: Toys

“Chopped Up Niggers” was a puzzle game featuring our people. Images of us were meant to be chopped up and put back together! The puzzle placed Black bodies at the mercy of the puzzle players. This normalized violence against our people in real life.
#2: Soap

Nigger Head Tar Soap was often used to soothe scalp issues such as psoriasis, dandruff, and skin allergies. These soaps all featured caricatures of Black faces with big bug eyes and gargantuan red lips.
#3: Greeting Cards

“Nigger Boy” cards were often used to spread joy, all while spreading racism and hatred.
#4: Geography

“Niggerhead” was used to describe any geographical feature that is “black and brisly.” Though the U.S. Board of Geographical Names changed most of these names to “Negro” on paper, some these places still bear their original names on the physical landmarks.
#5: Playing Cards

What better way to enjoy your game of Bid Whist or Charades than to see caricatures of Africans with rings in their noses or little Black boys eating watermelon? “Little Nigger Boy” cards were way too popular.
The images displayed on our everyday objects were used to indoctrinate children into a racist social order and to normalize Black oppression and dehumanization. Many of them are even valuable collector’s items now. What items help reinforce white supremacy today?

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More from @wearepushblack

10 Sep
⚠️ The following story contains graphic imagery displaying anti-Black violence that some may find triggering or disturbing. #PushBlack #BlackHistory

All you can smell is blood. All you can hear is the clanking of chains, shrieking men, and the chanting:
“Kill niggers, kill all you can. For they don’t have the right to live like men!”
Brutality had been brewing in Attica Prison for months, until violence boiled to the surface on September 9, 1971 and the prison became the site of a massive revolt.
Read 10 tweets
8 Sep
The hot frying oil sizzled as the fallen potato slice hardened. Her heart tightened in her chest – this mistake could cost them their jobs! Instead, what happened next spawned an industry that impacted the world. So why don’t we know their names? #PushBlack #BlackHistory 🥔 Image
Kate Wicks shrieked as the thin potato slices accidentally fell into the frying oil. They could be fired if anyone found out about their mistake! Not only that, an angry customer had sent back his order, saying his fries were too thick! What should they do? Image
She and her brother, George Crum, had no choice but to serve the accidentally-thin, crisp slices of fried potatoes to the customer. That mistake would end up having monumental consequences. Image
Read 7 tweets
8 Sep
This sea captain was the first to voluntarily sail a group of eager Black folks back to Africa. But in a matter of months, the dream would die – and so would he. #PushBlack #BlackHistory ⚓️ Image
Massachusetts sea captain Paul Cuffee confronted problems head-on.

In 1812, he was accused of violating a trade embargo with Great Britain and their new colony Sierra Leone. When his ship was seized, he took the matter up with President James Madison himself. Image
Madison returned Cuffee’s property, but was captivated by one particular radical idea. Cuffee planned to sail to and resettle free Black folks in Sierra Leone, a country already populated by Black Revolutionary War veterans.
Read 7 tweets
9 Mar
Happy #WomensHistoryMonth! This March, we're excited to bring to you all "Pull Up a Chair - Black Womxn are Speaking!" a FB Live series centered around authenticity and celebration of Black womxnhood. RSVP here fb.me/e/1b4HG4mQg to join us for part one TOMORROW at 7 pm ET
The event will be hosted by our amazing 2020 fellows! In true Shirley Chisholm fashion, we invite you to "pull up a chair," and experience five women that are making their table in 2021! And to follow our fellows on social media to keep up with their fantastic work 👇🏿:
Adrienne Spinner @MelMovMama
Instagram: @/MelanatedMovementMama
MelanatedMovementMama.com
Read 9 tweets
24 Dec 18
Henrietta Lacks was a poor tobacco farmer from Virginia who died from aggressive cervical cancer in 1951.
After her death, doctors harvested her cells at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital without her consent or her family’s knowledge.
Her cells, nicknamed “HeLa,” were special, and used to develop the AIDS cocktail, the polio vaccine, treatments for hemophilia, herpes, influenza and leukemia, and in-vitro fertilization.
Read 5 tweets

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