BGNov 24, 2022
Tracey Delaney
The first black child ever allowed to attend a white school is only 68 years old now.
White parents pulled their children from school. White teachers refused to teach her.
Ruby Bridges now works as an activist & public speaker
This wasn’t a million years ago. /1
Nov 21, 2022 at 4:09pmWeb
Show threadTracey DelaneyNov 21, 2022

We can never go backwards.

Make America great again?
When was that?
When interracial marriage was illegal? When a little black girl couldn’t attend school with white kids?
When a woman couldn’t get a credit card without her husband’s consent?

We must go onwards together. /2

Show threadTracey DelaneyNov 21, 2022
There was only one teacher who was willing to teach Ruby even though she received abuse & death threats and that was BarbaraHenry.
The right thing to do isn’t always the easiest thing to do.
Do it anyway. /3
Show threadIvy is SkepticalNov 24, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney According to Wiki, Ms Henry is still alive at 90.
Show threadRonak | ‘In Search of Starlight’ out now 💫Nov 21, 2022

@TheRealTraceyDelaney Boy, if they taught real American history in highschool, half the population would become radicalised overnight.

Stuff like the Tulsa Massacre, the Trail of Tears, Operation Paperclip, Operation Condor, etc.

“The motto of this country ought to be, 'You give us a colour, we'll wipe it out.'” - George Carlin

Show threadAaronNov 21, 2022
@ronak @TheRealTraceyDelaney Just saved your post. I know about some of these, no thanks to school, but there are some others you listed that I'll have to research later.
Show threadRonak | ‘In Search of Starlight’ out now 💫Nov 21, 2022
@hosford42 @TheRealTraceyDelaney 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Show threadAngryArtistNov 22, 2022
@ronak @TheRealTraceyDelaney not directly POC related, but there were also the Coal Wars, Operation Artichoke, 100 Day Hate Ins and a host of others too long to list here.
Show threadRonak | ‘In Search of Starlight’ out now 💫Nov 22, 2022

@AngryArtist @TheRealTraceyDelaney Americans crashed an entire airplane to assassinate Homi Bhabha, father of the Indian nuclear program. Setting back India at least two decades (if not more), it is speculated.

Wernher von Braun, father of the American lunar program, was a Nazi scientist who helped make new kinds missiles and rockets for the Third Reich during World War II. He was smuggled into America via Operation Paperclip.

It is also an open (yet unspoken) secret that Japan was already gonna negotiate the terms of surrender towards the end of World War II and that the Americans only dropped the two bombs to send a message to the Soviets and to scare the world into aligning with them.

I don't even have to mention stuff like the My Lai massacre, right? 😭

Show threadJane AyersNov 22, 2022
@ronak 1940, huge organized heavily-armed violent Nazi movements in the U.S. and documented Nazi collaborators in Congress working with German spies. If interested, check out an excellent podcast “Ultra with Rachel Maddow”. I had NO IDEA stuff like this EVER happened before now.
Show threadCameronNov 22, 2022
@janeayers @ronak there's a series I highly recommend purchasing a PBS subscription for by Ken Burns called The U.S. and the Holocaust.
Show threadRonak | ‘In Search of Starlight’ out now 💫Nov 22, 2022
@cameronflynn @janeayers Noted. ✌🏻
Show threadJane AyersNov 22, 2022
@cameronflynn @ronak Thank you — I like Ken Burns films and hadn’t heard of that one.
Show threadJane AyersNov 23, 2022
@cameronflynn I started watching it last night - thanks again. If you’re a podcast listener, “Ultra with Rachel Maddow” is an excellent, entertaining historical series about Americans, including 24 members of Congress, working directly with agents of Hitler’s government around 1940.
Show threadCameronNov 23, 2022
@janeayers followed, thank you! About to hit the road too-- good timing 🙂
Show threadLeaBugNov 22, 2022
@janeayers @ronak yes. Read up on Smedley Butler. A little known hero to democracy.
Show threadPatrickFromFWNov 23, 2022
@ronak @TheRealTraceyDelaney I’m reminded that Howard Zinn opened a lot of people’s eyes to US history from perspectives they didn’t get in school. A People’s History of the United States is over forty years old now.
Show threadAeáro, a SeaWyrm Nov 26, 2022

@ronak @TheRealTraceyDelaney

They taught my class about the Trail of Tears, at least. In I think 5th or 6th grade.

In retrospect, that was a pretty awesome teacher.

The Japanese internment camps came up in high school.

But it should all be standard.

Show threadFábio Costa 🐇🕐🎩☕Nov 22, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney question is... Great for Whom and at which cost?
Show threadWolfehNov 25, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney Judging by how ⅓ of the U.S. is acting, it seems like they want all of the above.
Show threadDavid Colquhoun on BlueskyNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney
"The first black child ever allowed to attend a white school" IN THE USA
Show threadCharles ☭ is now tooting from queer.partyNov 21, 2022

@david_colquhoun

Hello, yes it's annoying when USians forget that other countries exist, but I feel like maybe there are better times to raise objects and worse times. This is not the post I would pick for it.

Show threadTracey DelaneyNov 21, 2022
@david_colquhoun @celesteh First of all, I was born and raised in Ireland. Hi! Secondly segregation of white & black school children usually refers to USA or South Africa. Unless you want to be pedantic and refer to other types of segregation.
So it’s moot to point out that this didn’t happen in Ireland or Italy because white & black school children were never segregated in these countries.
Show threadThe Yarn HobbitNov 22, 2022

@TheRealTraceyDelaney @david_colquhoun @celesteh I was talking to my mum about this the other day - she attended a small primary & grammar school in the late 50s in Somerset (UK) and discovered that while she thought the school was predominantly white, there was actually a 2nd class for PoC who had different playtime & were never seen.

She was horrified as a child & it's haunted her knowing that it was allowed to happen.

Show thread🌻٩(-̮̮̃•̃)۶Nov 22, 2022

@TheRealTraceyDelaney @david_colquhoun @celesteh we should also pay a lot of attention to holomordor and that Russia is still a very barbaric country doing even worse crimes as we speak. They are right now killing and kidnapping many children. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/20/kherson-orphans-hidden-mykolaiv-ukraine/
It thinks and acts genocidal racist towards other people. More info if you follow
Anne Applebaum https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1594905964850954240?t=ZGRSrh8gsuyryrR65JhhWQ&s=08
and Julia Davis https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews?t=RYt92uHYQddjtNKH6cSxaw&s=08

Iran state also murders many right now

Near Kherson, orphanage staff hid Ukrainian children from Russian occupiers

Ukrainian orphans were at risk of being taken by retreating Russian soldiers, so orphanage staff took them into their own homes to hide them.

The Washington Post
Show threadDavid Colquhoun on BlueskyNov 22, 2022
@Marizsmn @TheRealTraceyDelaney @celesteh
Anne Applebaum is now on Mastodon @anneapplebaum
Show thread🌻٩(-̮̮̃•̃)۶Nov 22, 2022
thnx!!!
Show threadZoeNov 22, 2022
@david_colquhoun @TheRealTraceyDelaney you are allowed to speak about your own country without caveat. I know that its confusing given that (American) English is the international lingua franca.
Show threadKentish Fran 🇪🇺Nov 21, 2022
My husband's aunt Dorothy was a primary school headteacher in Preston in the 50s and 60s. When lots of Asian children started to arrive the teachers wanted guidance so Dorothy gathered them together and said 'these boys and girls are children so we treat them exactly the same way as we treat any and all children'. They went on to be a groundbreaking school that had visits from educationalists from all over the world.
Show threadDissentNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney I saw a wonderful children's play a few years ago about her. It was so lovely.
Show threadJean VickersNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney Ruby spoke this past week at the African American Museum in Tucson AZ
Show threadKLBNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney EVERY TIME I see that picture of that tiny brave girl, my heart clutches. Then I see those cruel twisted faces and my stomach turns. Those women are likely still alive too, and I hope they are ashamed.
Show threadTracey DelaneyNov 21, 2022
@KLB same. How could you see anything but a beautiful, precious child.
Show threadamie.riversNov 21, 2022

@TheRealTraceyDelaney

Totally here for your point, but Susan Clark was well before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_v._Board_of_School_Directors

(I'm from Muscatine and it's a big deal there -- they now even named my old middle school after her!)

Clark v. Board of School Directors - Wikipedia

Show threadPeteNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney You're on the Internet. You're not in Kansas anymore.
Show threadSuecrisNov 22, 2022
@pete @TheRealTraceyDelaney Can you explain what you meant by this comment?
Show threadPeteNov 22, 2022

@NoTwit @TheRealTraceyDelaney Yes. The "first black child ever allowed to attend a white school" is within the context of racist US segregation.

We're on the Internet here. There are plenty of integrated schools in the world.

Show threadSuecrisNov 22, 2022
@pete @TheRealTraceyDelaney Your bio says "I believe in kindness, equality, forbearance, but need practice." Perhaps you should practice sounding more kind, because this response to Ms. Delaney wasn't.
Show threadPeteNov 22, 2022

@NoTwit @TheRealTraceyDelaney Thanks for the advice. I didn't intend to sound unkind. The "You're not in Kansas anymore" was a paraphrase of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. A perhaps failed attempt at humour, but an attempt nonetheless. I didn't think I was being unpleasant.

I put my values in my profile to keep myself honest and accountable, and also to say I'm imperfect but am trying to improve. That opens me up to be criticised, just as you have done. But be aware of the uneven dynamic there.

Show threadSuecrisNov 22, 2022
@pete @TheRealTraceyDelaney Probably best if you and I both mute each other, and leave it at that.
Show threadPeteNov 22, 2022
@NoTwit @TheRealTraceyDelaney I'm not muting anyone. Sorry I've upset you. I'd like to improve.
Show threadSuecrisNov 22, 2022

@pete @TheRealTraceyDelaney OK, you're not from the U.S., but telling a person that a famous quote is from their country's most famous movie, or "informing" them that the rest of the world wasn't as segregated as their country was/is - those things raise hackles. Chalk it up to a 400+ year history of enslavement and racism. You could call it condescension, and it hits differently in the U.S.

Sigh. I was really hoping to avoid ranting like this on Mastodon.

Show threadPeteNov 22, 2022
@NoTwit @TheRealTraceyDelaney I'm sorry you're feeling exasperated and that our interaction is the cause. I didn't think what I was saying would raise hackles. I don't always know the effect my words will have on others. I can see why there is sensitivity, and I could have been more sensitive.
edit: (I hit send by mistake!)
I'm also excited about Mastodon, and hope for better things. All the best.
Show thread@dlenaresNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney Ruby is a hero that is true, however not all states had segregated schools at that time.
Massachusetts schools were integrated in the 1840s.
Show threadHilary BurrageNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney
What that brave little girl did with those determined sheriffs has stayed with me through the years; I was in the UK and 12 then, but I caught on to the story not so long after it happened.
Show threadchaos 🏳️‍🌈Nov 21, 2022

@TheRealTraceyDelaney and we need to reinforce the memory that this is RECENT history 🔁

#BlackLivesMatter

Show threadAndrew RichardsNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney I recall watching Eyes on the Prize as a teenager, and discovering (I live in the UK) how shockingly recently the US was essentially an apartheid state. My impression, at least from this side of the Atlantic, is that what freedoms have been won in the past fifty years are being severely eroded.
Show threadVamNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney
No, it was in my lifetime, it was still happening when I was 12, and it made an enormous impact on me seeing all those hate-filled faces! Later those same faces jeered and spat at Catholic children going to school in N. Ireland. The effect of seeing this hatred and discrimination has stayed with me all my life and I hope I have shown my children and grandchildren that all human beings are equal and deserving of respect. Thank you for sharing.
Show threadDanAyalaNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney Great ¡!
Show threadDaniellaArgentoNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney we stand on the shoulders of giants...
Show threadNellMinowNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney This Norman Rockwell painting was loaned to the Obamas so it could hang outside the Oval Office. They told Ms. Bridges they would not be there without what she did. She was alone in the classroom all year.
Show threadBeeCycling has movedNov 22, 2022
@nminow @TheRealTraceyDelaney I saw a feature on Google Arts and Culture all about the painting and how Rockwell created it. Especially interested in a part about the reason that Ruby isn't right in the middle of the picture, because it was created for a magazine, and that would put her figure in the fold of the page. But that it also works thematically, because having her pressing ahead that way shows her lack of fear and her eagerness to get to school and learn.
Show threadBarry Hope #FBPENov 28, 2022
@beecycling @nminow @TheRealTraceyDelaney I had the privilege of seeing the original in an exhibition in Caen, France a few years ago. The care Rockwell took over the details in planning his works is breathtaking. Nothing is there on a whim.
Show threadMorabeetsNov 22, 2022
@nminow @TheRealTraceyDelaney so sad
Show threadDorothy LepkowskaNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney One of the iconic images of the civil rights movement. Children should never think they're too young or small to make a difference.
Show thread🦣Nov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney 😢
Show threadDr. ZekeNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney
Someone put this on the #BlackMastodon reading list please
Show threadPeter Wynne-JonesNov 21, 2022
@TheRealTraceyDelaney Being white and also 68, this post rocked me to the core. It seemed such a long time ago but it was within my lifetime, exactly.
Show threadTheJenNov 21, 2022

@TheRealTraceyDelaney

I have met her. Lovely person. I'm 50.