Today finds us revisiting another disturbing anti-Black event in American history: The New Orleans Massacre on July 30, 1866, during the Reconstruction era in the South.
I post history videos on this page daily, and I cull lots of clutter to get to the good stuff. I try desperately not to post anything with obvious artificial intelligence: ridiculous generated photos and robotic audio. I’m a bit disturbed that not a lot of real people are posting about a lot of American history–particularly massacres on minorities and police-fueled riots. We need to do better. Avoiding the topic is not a solution.
At any rate, here’s a video from a Black vlogger about the New Orleans Massacre.
If you’re looking for “official” sources, the National Park Service has an article about the New Orleans Massacre. (Here’s the link to that article.) History.com has another. (Here is the link to that article.)
Have you ever thought about how the white people called the Native Americans “savages” and used a multitude of similar words and slurs against African-American people, yet the white people are the ones who bring the savagery upon other peoples? Are some people doing this today with respect to immigrants? Think about the fabricated stories about the Haitians eating domestic pets stories last election season. These stories and the resulting violence repeat themselves with disturbing frequency throughout American history. A question I asked my older child: Has America ever been truly great? What is American greatness? Can America be great despite such human rights violations? How can we seek to do better and improve democracy for everyone?
Never stop learning,
Erin
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