Bigotry beneath black history (op-ed)

Recently, in Orlando, FL a 29 year-old gunman entered a gay nightclub and murdered 49 people and injured 53 others. Then the gunman, an American of Afghan descent who reportedly pledged allegiance to “The Islamic state” was killed in a shootout with the police.

Afterwards headlines declared Orlando the “deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history”, and the assertion was immediately challenged on social media with old newspaper clippings featuring carnage in East St. Louis in 1917.

One image sharer wrote, “As tragic as the Orlando massacre was it’s not the worst in U.S. history. Here African-American’s were massacred, but the media does not want us to know.” Another said, “When it comes to history tell the whole story.”

Let’s take that advice.

In 1917 The Great Migration was in progress. That spring two thousand blacks arrived in St. Louis per week to meet increased labor demands. This influx created economic competition and tension between the races. On May 28 three thousand white men marched into East St. Louis and attacked blacks and destroyed property.

The National Guard temporarily stopped the rioting.

On July 2 white males drove through a black area and opened fired on a crowd. An hour later, another car with white passengers arrived. Black residents thought the previous shooters returned so they shot several times at the vehicle, killing a police officer who was escorting a journalist through town. After the news spread that the blacks killed a policeman white mobs converged on East St. Louis and another riot erupted.

Knowing the whole story, it would be shocking if the death toll was equal to Orlando because a lot more would be expected in a race war.

Now another image sharer went further and made a list. He wrote, “Before we begin spreading the lies of the deadliest mass terrorist shooting in U.S. History let’s not forget.”

1). East St. Louis Massacre 1917 (200-700 deaths)

2). Arkansas Massacre 1919 (854 deaths)

3). Tulsa Massacre 1921 (300-3000 deaths)

4). Rosewood Massacre 1923 (150 deaths)

But none of these are deadly mass terrorist shootings. Each incident has a unique homegrown cause that produced mob violence ending in distinct tragedies. They’re not comparable to each other, let alone to a single gunman in a night club.

Now the source these images generated from admitted if “mass shootings” are limited to a lone gunman in a school, theater, or nightclub then Orlando makes history. But the source proclaimed the definition has a narrow focus preventing comparisons with other horrific events in U.S. history linked to fear, discrimination, and intolerance. And as shocking and ghastly as the Florida tragedy was, it actually pales in comparison.

But in 2007 when The New York Times announced the 32 victims at Virginia Tech was the “deadliest shooting rampage in American history” no comparisons were made. Why not, if the purpose of comparison is to keep a proper historical context?

No comparison was made because the victims at Virginia Tech were students, and students are not a rival “minority” group. These black tragedies were used to maintain minority group supremacy in historical suffering and to keep the gay rival group off the top of the massacre charts.

This type of comparison is the byproduct of believing that black lives matter instead of all life. It’s absent of human decency. It turns all the victims into contestants for suffering contest and the bigotry behind this competition is beneath black history.

First published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 6/22/16