Reminder: Emmett Till was killed in 1955
Despite what white people of today want to believe, it was NOT that long ago. At all.
Like, my father who is absolutely still alive (he’s sleeping right now though cause it’s after midnight) vividly remembers being packed in a car with some of his siblings and my grandparents and going to hear MLK speak in DC
Rosa Parks only died in 2005
I can only trace my paternal lineage back to my great-great grandfather who was an escaped slave. Like, me myself is only three generations removed from chattel slavery
The daughter of a slave was in the opening ceremony of the National African American History Museum
This isn’t even touching on the ramifications of Jim Crow Laws. There are literally Sundown Towns (though not with the blatant signage they used to have at the height of Jim Crow) and redlining is still a thing that happens (Google them if you’re unfamiliar)
I really hate that when White people talk about slavery and segregation, they frequently act like it was so long ago because it wasn’t. And that green strip? We’re still going through systemic oppression and racist practices held over from the segregation era. It’s not like the US desegregated and everything was copacetic after
Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to go to a White school is only two months older than my dad
Please, if you’re White, really try to conceptualize how recent these events were and what’s still going on. Just because something is historical doesn’t necessarily mean it happened a long time ago or that its effects aren’t still felt
