The black community in Greenwood faced widespread destruction as businesses, homes, and churches were burned to the ground. Thousands of black residents were left homeless, and the once-thriving Greenwood District was left in ruins. During this time, no one was held accountable for the violence, and the incident was left mainly from history books for decades. My parents made sure I knew about such occurrences in history so that I could fight for what was right if I ever saw it repeat itself. Survivors faced ongoing discrimination and economic hardships as they struggled to rebuild their lives and businesses. I also believe that we can see examples of them struggling to rebuild. As an example of CRT, these families were unjustly attacked. Shouldn't they have more government help to restore their businesses? This is a prime example of systematic racism; if this situation were the other way around, they would've probably killed the black people who were responsible and given money to the white business to help them with repairs.
What is the most mind-boggling thing about this to me is that we still see incidents today where White people ruin black churches with hateful intent, and they have little repercussions, or they get the benefit of the doubt always. They also get the excuse of having mental illnesses when it's just pure hate and racism. Thousands of black residents were left homeless, and the once-thriving Greenwood District was left in ruins. During this time, no one was held accountable for the violence, and the incident was left mainly left yet from history books for decades. My parents made sure I knew about such occurrences in history so that I could fight for what was right if I ever saw it repeated. What is the most mind-boggling thing about this to me is we still kind of see incidents today where White people ruin black churches with hateful intent, and they have little repercussions, or they get the benefit of the doubt always. They also get the excuse of having mental illnesses when it's just pure hate and racism.
It's so sad what those people went through in Greenwood. But the most hurtful part about it is that no accountability for the ones who burned down the town. That's why I'm a true believer of reparations. Its not going to bring back what they loss but at least they will be given something back for there families.
Hi Sasha,
Great example of the systematic racism that the Critical Race Theory explains. These hate crimes definitely do still happen and it's so disheartening. They're constantly given passes due to random excuses while black people go to prison over smaller issues every day.