mekka okereke Jun 15, 2023

Juneteenth (June 19th) is not a "holiday celebrating when news of the end of slavery finally reached Texas." No. Just no. Y'all make it sound like network latency! Like we were playing Fortnite, and all the Black players were lagging.🤡

Juneteenth is when the racist state of Texas took another very public L. Texas did everything it could to keep slavery going as long as possible. They gave up land to Oklahoma, so they could be below the slavery line. The Alamo was a victory for abolitionists.

Show threadmekka okereke Jun 15, 2023

Texas should look like Kid's hair. But it looks like Play's hair. Because Texas wanted to hold onto that racism just a little bit longer.

The Alamo was also a fight to preserve Texas's right to keep slavery going. They lost.

You can't just keep lying and changing how history is taught to hide the shamefulness of racism. If you want to be remembered as the good guys, maybe try being the good guys!

Otherwise, you'll just be embarrassed when your kids and grand kids learn the truth about you.

Show threadmekka okereke Jun 15, 2023

They teach you about the Alamo. But they don't teach you about the Nueces massacre. At the start of the civil war, almost a hundred armed German Texans (who opposed slavery♥️🙏🏿) tried to flee South to Mexico, so that they could make it over to New Orleans. The Confederate soldiers caught them and massacred them.

Robstown in Nueces County, was one of the last places to begrudgingly give up slavery 2 years after the emancipation proclamation.

This is the logo of the Robstown football team today.🤡

Show threadmekka okereke Jun 15, 2023

Why are white Texans who died bravely fighting to keep slavery going remembered as heroes? But white Texans who died bravely fighting to oppose slavery, forgotten and not talked about? 🤔

What are we really celebrating?

"Everyone was racist back then!" No. No they weren't. Stop saying that.

Show threadDeirdre Saoirse MoenJun 18, 2023

@mekkaokereke One of my favorite white guys from the founding of the US was French: the Marquis de Lafayette, who offered to pay for Jefferson’s slaves to be free; Jefferson refused. He urged Washington to free his slaves; Washington refused.

(Lafayette did buy a plantation with slaves that he intended to give an education, then free, but France seized the land.)

Show threadWanderingBeekeeperJun 18, 2023
@deirdresm @mekkaokereke The tour guides at Monticello currently bring this point up, that Jefferson only freed 11 people in his life, and four of them were blood relatives, and that Lafayette was quite disgusted with Jefferson for failing to live up to his principles. Monticello is run by a private foundation, not by the US government, and is thus able to present Jefferson not as a national hero, but as a complicated, deeply flawed man who did both great and terrible things.
Show threadJon R
@mekkaokereke @WanderingBeekeeper @deirdresm Monticello is a terrific visit for sure. The “house tour” doesn’t sugar coat TJ too much, but the “slave tour” left me unable to feel any admiration or respect for the man. All humans are complicated I suppose, but whatever cowardice or greed left him so unwilling to live up to his stated ideals doesn’t strike me as particularly complicated, just sad and depressing.
Jun 18, 2023 at 6:04pmWeb
Show threadRaven OnthillJun 18, 2023
@JonR @mekkaokereke @WanderingBeekeeper @deirdresm and yet slavery is a norm in human history. Societies without it are unusual. Jefferson at least had ideals he fell short of; so many do not even have those.