Tulsa Oklahoma bombing and how bitcoin solves this
The city’s “Black Wall Street” was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America and was a Black utopia — and then burned down. Just decades after slavery in the United States left Black Americans at an economic and social deficit, one bright spot stood out in Tulsa, Oklahoma — the Greenwood District, known as the Black Wall Street of Black business leaders, homeowners, and civic leaders succeeded. But 100 years ago, on May 31, 1921, and the next day, a white mob destroyed that area, what experts say is the most horrific racist terror incident since slavery. According to a report published by Human Rights Watch, an estimated 300 people were killed in the area’s 35-square blocks, and more than 1,200 homes, at least 60 businesses, dozens of churches, a school, a hospital, and a public library were destroyed. The corner of Greenwood and Archer was devastated on June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma Department of Special Collections, McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa Williams Building, no.2 Greenwood Ave., Dreamland Theatre area.
After controlling for inflation and the current economy, at least $1.4 million in compensation was claimed after the massacre or about $20 million in today’s dollars, but experts say this is underestimated. OW Gurley, a wealthy Black landowner, purchased 40 acres in Tulsa in 1906 and named the area Greenwood. Oklahoma, which became a state in 1907, was still strictly segregated at the time. Blacks secured their own homes and opened businesses while Gurley opened a hostel, grocery stores and sold land to other Black people. The population rose to 11,000 and the area became an economic powerhouse, affectionately called Black Wall Street.
Greenwood operated independently with its own school system, post office, bank, library, hospital, and public transportation. They also had luxury stores, restaurants, grocery stores, hotels, jewelry and clothing stores, cinemas, barbers and salons, pool halls, nightclubs, and offices for doctors, lawyers, and dentists. North Greenwood Ave., Tulsa, Okla., before the 1921 Tulsa massacre. Hannibal Johnson, author of “Black Wall Street: From Riot to Renaissance in Tulsa’s Historic Greenwood District” said, the area has developed as a subsidiary economy that keeps money within the community. Even those working outside of Greenwood said they only spent their money in the area, reinvesting in the neighborhood. “The area started to become the kind of economic and entrepreneurial Mecca for Blacks because it was a time of discrimination,” he said. “Blacks were excluded from the dominant white led economy, which I call the economic roundabout. In other words, when they approached the door of economic opportunity in the white-dominated downtown Tulsa economy, they were turned away.
What sparked the massacre was Tulsa police officers arresting 19-year-old Black Dick Rowland for allegedly assaulting a white girl (the go to excuse for terrorizing & killing Black men) on May 31, 1921, he said, but there was little evidence. Tulsa newspapers quickly ran provocative articles about the allegation, and a group of mostly whites began descending on the courthouse to lynch Rowland. African American men were detained on June 1, 1921, in Tulsa, Oklahoma and taken to a residential street to the courthouse to protect Rowland, when residents of Greenwood learned of the impending lynching. This method became customary when Blacks were prosecuted because they often faced lynching. However, the sheriff told the group to split up, and they obeyed. The white mob numbered over 2,000 and the Tulsa police did not disperse the crowd. According to the report, later that night, armed Black men returned to protect Rowland, and when a white man tried to disarm a Black man, a fight broke out, leading to a night-long shooting.
Following the massacre, the next week saw at least 6,000 of the remaining residents detained in concentration camps. They were given identification tags and remained in the camps, some for months, they could not leave without their tags and the permission of the white inspectors. Black residents never received financial aid to rebuild their homes and businesses. Some have filed insurance claims or lawsuits, but none have been paid due to riot clauses, the report said. They were left to rebuild on their own. Crowds of people watching the fires in Tulsa looked on from Cincinnati Ave to Detroit Ave, from the 2nd St. Department of Special Collections, the McFarlin Library, and the University of Tulsa.
The Greenwood District of Tulsa has been rebuilt after the massacre 100 years ago. Then came another blow. Johnson was eventually reborn from the ashes of Black Wall Street, and Greenwood had another heyday in the 1940s, and urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s led to new declines that the neighborhood couldn’t quite overcome, Johnson said. The decline has only converged since then, as Tulsa is largely segregated and riddled with racial disparities. Greenwood is just outside North Tulsa, which is mostly Black, while South Tulsa is a mostly white area. These days, more than 30 percent of Northern Tulsans live in poverty, compared to 13 percent of Southern Tulsans, the report said. On average, Northern Tulsans live 14 years less than Southern Tulsans. Black Tulsans are three times more likely to experience police brutality than their white counterparts. Statewide, 43 percent of blacks and 72 percent of whites own their homes.
Vernon AME Church with a plaque commemorating the 1921 Tulsa Massacre in Oklahoma, Tulsa, May 21, 2021. For Christopher Creese / NBC News Johnson said the two main casualties of the carnage that contributed to these inconsistencies and impacted daily life were the breach of trust between black and white communities and the inability to transfer accumulated wealth.
Bitcoin is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network used by its users without a central authority or intermediaries. This lack of a central authority is the main reason why governments hate bitcoin. Fiat is a term used to describe conventional currencies issued by governments. Fiat currencies have value because governments say so. For a growing number of people, this promise means nothing. After all, uncovered currencies are not covered by any tangible assets.
Central Banks control fiat currencies. They use Governments to issue or destroy money out of nothing, using so-called monetary policy to assert economic influence. They also dictate how uncovered currencies can be converted, allowing them to track currency movements, dictate who benefits from the movement, collect taxes from it and track crime, but allow the crime of inflation. While the public’s attention is drawn to the potential of crime, the role of the currency in the nation’s monetary policy has the potential to have a much greater impact.
Bitcoin users do not need the existing banking system. Currency is created in cyberspace when bitcoin miners use the power of their computers to solve complex algorithms that serve to validate bitcoin transactions. The reward for them is payment in bitcoin, which is stored digitally and passed between buyers and sellers without the need for mediation. When bitcoin become widely accepted, the whole banking system will become irrelevant. Bitcoin is the first time in history where people that are disenfranchise can truly protect their wealth from, inflation, confiscation, and jealousy. Saving your monetary energy in bitcoin, is the best way to protect your wealth from seizure, they can’t burn, or bomb bitcoin. If the inhabitants of Tulsa, had bitcoin available to them, they wouldn’t need to worry about reparations, insurance claims or the government doing the right thing and restoring what was rightfully theirs. Bitcoin is the first time, where we can pass down our wealth to future generations and not worry about the government invoking imminent domain rules, or allowing terrorist to bomb, burn, and loot your wealth from them. This is how bitcoin solves this.
There have been plenty of articles written about bitcoin and its illegal use or that bitcoin is just used a speculative asset for degenerate gamblers. Well, those so-called intellectuals, are coming from a place of privilege, and their currency is relatively stable and can be used worldwide. Most financial crimes are facilitated using the current banking and financial system. Converting your national currency into bitcoin is the only way to assure that something like the destruction of Tulsa, Oklahoma does not happen again. Bitcoin is used today all over the world as an escape from oppressive regimes, that use money for surveillance or state control, their currency is often debased and for the most part isn’t used or cannot be used in the current financial system. Bitcoin is freedom, and the best savings account available to people of any color, that want to pass their monetary energy to their descendants.
Reference:
Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 years later: Why it happened and why it’s still relevant today 2021 English R. Richardson
