#A lie and a gang of White men destroyed an entire Black community

[ausetkmt]

What started as an accusation from a white woman from the nearby town of Sumner, would become an escalated situation of retaliation and the eventual massacre of an entire community, as well as the complete destruction of Rosewood, an unincorporated black community in Levy County, Florida.

Rosewood was a community built in 1845, nine miles (14 km) east of Cedar Key, near the Gulf of Mexico. Powered by the timber industry, the community was purely black-populated, with the closest communities around it housing white people.

With two pencil mills nearby in Cedar Key, the existence of turpentine and sawmills in Sumner helped support local residents, as did the farming of citrus and cotton.

And with a growth that required further development, a post office as well as a train depot on the Florida Railroad in 1870, were built.

In January 1923, just around a period of the repeated lynching of black people around Florida, a white woman, Frances “Fannie” Taylor, a 22-year-old married to James, a 30-year-old millwright employed by Cummer & Sons in Sumner accused a black man from the town of Rosewood of beating her and eventually raping her.

From the accounts of what happened, Frances and her husband lived with their two young children and James was mostly at work from early in the mornings. Described as “meticulously clean and scrubbing her cedar floors with bleach so that they shone white,” other women attested that Taylor was aloof; no one knew her very well.

On January 1, 1923, the Taylors’ neighbor reported that she heard a scream while it was still dark, grabbed her revolver and ran next door to find Fannie bruised and beaten, with scuff marks across the white floor. Taylor was screaming that someone needed to get her baby.

According to her, a black man was in her house, who she said came through the back door and assaulted her. The neighbor found the baby, but no one else.

Taylor’s initial report stated that her assailant beat her about the face but did not rape her. Rumors circulated—widely believed to be by the whites in Sumner—that she was both raped and robbed. It would emerge later though that she lied concerning what happened as what did happen was that she was beaten by her lover while her husband was at work.

She decided to pick the more vulnerable black people of Rosewood to lay the blame on them to save herself the embarrassment.  

She might not have hoped that it would escalate but upon hearing her lie and noting that in Florida at the time, the charge of rape of a white woman by a black was inflammatory, men from her Sumner community invaded the Black community, lynching a number of them.

The black citizens had to defend themselves and so they did. In their attempt against further attacks, several hundred whites re-organized themselves with many coming in from all over upon hearing the news combing the countryside in a hunt for black people to kill and to set fire into almost every structure in Rosewood.

It was a complete massacre!

Sylvester Carrier took up arms and did a brave thing by fighting against the men, killing two whites before he was taken out in that shootout. His bravery was short-lived but it encouraged them.

By the time the mob had dispersed, the town had been almost totally destroyed, with businesses, churches, and homes in ruins or burned to the ground.

Surviving residents fled, with many settling down in nearby Gainesville or moving to cities in the North. Although state and local authorities were aware of the violence, they made no arrests for the massacre in Rosewood.

Although the surviving members of Rosewood went away and forgot about the town and all that happened there, in 1982, Gary Moore, a journalist for the St. Petersburg Times, resurrected the history of Rosewood through a series of articles that gained national attention.

At that point, the living survivors of the massacre, most of them in their 80s and 90s, came forward led by Rosewood descendant Arnett Doctor and demanded restitution from Florida.

The action led to the passing of a bill awarding them $2 million and created an educational fund for descendants. The bill also called for an investigation into the matter to clarify the events, which Moore took part in.

Further awareness was created through John Singleton’s 1997 film, Rosewood, which dramatized the events.

[xtruss]

Recounting 'Seven Sins' of the US' Alliance System

— Bu Wuwen | June 4, 2021 | Global Times

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Alliance is the evil weapon of hegemony. This is a common consensus reached among most countries, and one of the founding missions of the United States of America.

George Washington, the founding father of the United States of America, had repeatedly warned the American people to prevent the country from copying its European allies' pursuit of hegemony. In his farewell address in September 1796, Washington reinforced the idea that it was their 'true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world."

The US, driven by its irresistible greed for power, is now ironically what its founding father forewarned of and the world abominates. American geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski declared that the supremacy of the US in the world is supported by a fine system of alliances that covers the whole world.

The US is now desperate to find its few remaining nickles, being the over-spender it is, after being struck by financial crises and the COVID-19 pandemic. As an incurable addict of hegemony, the US cast its eyes on its allies. The US has created a gang out of the alliance system, whose trail is full of partisanship and fratricide.

We shall now recount the seven sins of this gang. '7 sins' of the US' Alliance System Infographic: Wu Tiantong — Global Times

1. Concealment

Those who chase profits are often entangled together — Old Chinese saying

Japan has recently declared that it would directly discharge the radioactive wastewater from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, which has raised worldwide concern. Surprisingly, the US, a self-proclaimed shining beacon of environmental protection, human rights, and justice, betrayed Asian-Pacific countries and the Earth, and expressed "appreciation" in response to Japan's decision, exposing its hypocrisy.

None of this comes as a surprise. The US was always known for its double standards, where fairness and justice are nothing more than arbitrary fig leaves.

In Sharpeville of South Africa, during the apartheid era, the government opened fire on black demonstrators, killing 69 of them in the Sharpeville Massacre. In order to contain the former Soviet Union's influence in the Third World, the US could not accept losing an anti-communist ally. In the end, the "leader of the free world" cravenly defended the all-white government in South Africa without hesitation.

In fact, the standard criteria for the US' decision-making process are ideological confrontation and geopolitical interests. To serve its purpose, it stages nasty Faustian deals at any cost; it sells its soul to the devil in exchange for its gains.

2. Lying

We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment. - Michael Pompeo

In the past two decades alone, the US-led Multinational Coalition and Coalition of the Willing caused countless tragedies by fabricating lies.

Using a tube of detergent as evidence of weapons of mass destruction, the US launched the Iraq War that killed 250,000 civilians in the Gulf country. Jessica Lynch, a female private in the US Army was injured in the war and saved by Iraqi medics. CNN, however, falsified the story and said that Lynch was tortured as a prisoner in Iraq, and was a witness for human rights abuses. In 2007, Lynch testified in a congressional hearing that the US Army made false claims about her capture.

A decade later, the US replicated the Iraq lie. It fabricated footages of Syria using chemical weapons on civilians, which was a convenient excuse for the US to launch air raids on another country. From 2016 to 2019, the recorded number of civilian deaths in Syria was 33,584. Half of the 3,833 victims killed by bombs dropped by the US-led coalition were women and children.

Fortunately, the truth is beginning to reveal itself. Recently Vice President Kamala Harris blurted out: "You know for years and generations wars have been fought over oil." This matches the American magazine Foreign Policy's comment that "safeguarding human rights" isn't the driving force for US' external warfare, but a means to seek interests.

Hegemony monopolizes absolute power and dehumanizes the US into moral bankruptcy. The historically flaunted promised land of progression and idealism has now fallen. All is lost.

— Wu Tiantong | June 4, 2021

3. Violence

The Americans of the United States have achieved this double result with a marvelous ease, calmly, legally, philanthropically, without shedding blood, without violating a single one of the great principles of morality in the eyes of the world. You cannot destroy men while better respecting the laws of humanity. - Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

Hegemony is by nature coldblooded. Throughout its 245 years of history, the Americans enjoyed as few as 16 years without war. From the end of WWII to 2001, the world had seen 248 armed conflicts in 153 regions, and 201 of them were started by the US.

In 1989, the US invaded Panama to depose the de facto Panamanian leader. In 1999, the US-led NATO forces, without authorization from the United Nations Security Council, bombarded the former Yugoslavia and "accidentally" bombed the Chinese embassy, killing three Chinese journalists. Since 2001, the US has started wars or military actions in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, leaving more than 800,000 dead and tens of millions of refugees.

The US military dragged its allies to wars that caused unprecedented refugee crises. Statistically, the number of refugees reached 11 million in Afghanistan, 380,000 in Pakistan, 3.25 million in Iraq and 12.59 million in Syria. About 1.3 million Afghans went to Pakistan and 900,000 to Iran. Of the Iraqi and Syrian refugees, about 3.5 million fled to Turkey and 1 million to Iran.

The US military always hit the headlines for its ruthless prisoner abuses. In addition, Australia proved to be a reliable lackey, allowing its soldiers to slaughter civilians in Afghanistan.

4. Plunder

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do. - Samuel P. Huntington

In the US' alliance system, war is the most immediate way to plunder. The US, the world's top war machine, writes the word "plunder" on every page of its history of more than 200 years.

Dwight D. Eisenhower concluded his presidential term by warning the US about the increasing power of the military-industry complex. Michael Brenes, professor of history at Yale University, in his To Defeat the Radical Right, End American Empire pointed out that the American military has long been fertile ground for the far right and they together built the warfare state.

After unpegging the US dollar from gold in 1971, the US shaped a USA-US military-US dollar trinity to support its hegemony. In collaboration with its allies, the US grabbed control over the oil resources in the Middle East to prevent its dollar hegemony from falling apart, and also opened the door to plunder the region's wealth.

The US profits from every global crisis, such as from the crises in Russia and Eastern Europe when the former Soviet Union collapsed; from the Balkan Peninsula when the former Yugoslavia broke up; from the Four Asian Tigers and Southeast Asia during the Asian Financial Crisis. During the 2008 financial crisis, the whole world had to pay the American debt. Now, the US has brought out a $1.9 trillion stimulus package which, in fact, means massive amounts of banknotes will be issued to tamp down the exchange rates of foreign currencies, and consequently take advantage of the rest of the world.

Relying on its financial hegemony, the US has robbed tens of trillions of dollars from other countries. The victims, though filled with anger, are so afraid of the American military alliance which is armed to the teeth, that most of them choose to keep silent.

5. Infringement

The judicial system leaves you no room to have faith in it. It's like peeling layers and layers of onion skin. Every layer that you peel, your eyes get more teary to the point where you can't peel anymore because your eyes are so watery. You're literally weeping, and the Bible talks about this, until you have no more strength to weep. - Emmett G. Price III, host of WGBH, a public radio station located in Boston

The American alliance system expertly manipulates international rules. Power trumps justice in the pursuit of self-interest. The US chooses which international laws to enforce based solely on its convenience. In recent years, the US pulled out of the Paris Agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Treaty on Open Skies, and the INF Treaty, revoked the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty, and handled the renewal of the New START Treaty passively. It is addicted to breaching treaties.

Moreover, it feels glorified instead of being ashamed, and starts to advocate the "rules-based international order" in which the "rules" refer to its alliance's own rules and unequal terms.

The US and its allies challenged the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea with the Freedom of Navigation. They attempted to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from investigating its crimes committed in the Afghan War at all costs, which included threatening the ICC investigation staff that they would be subject to retribution.

In the information sphere, the US is a hackers' empire. Early in the Cold War, it organized the notorious Five Eyes alliance to monitor electronic communications worldwide. The US blames others for information theft and cyber-attacks while it covertly obstructs cyber security.

In 2013, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee Edward Snowden brought to light the PRISM program operated by the US, which was a surveillance program targeting both citizens and political figures on a global scale. Also in 2013, Der Spiegel disclosed that the National Security Agency (NSA) had installed spyware or modified hardware in the computers before they were delivered for foreign diplomats' use.

In 2017, WikiLeaks released thousands of confidential documents that exposed how the CIA was hacking the world. In 2020, it was revealed that since the end of WWII, the CIA has been controlling a Swiss encryption company to intercept top secrets of many countries, including its allies.

6. Destruction

Moral depravity defines US politics. The United States is regarded as the greatest threat to world peace. - Noam Chomsky, US philosopher

The US and its allies have long been the fallen angel that wreck foreign regimes and regional peace.

According to Covert Regime Change: America's Secret Cold War by Assistant Professor Lindsey O'Rourke at Boston College, in the 42 years between 1947 and 1989, the US had 64 covert subversions and six open operations. The US seems to show more excitement and enthusiasm for overthrowing foreign regimes than it does for celebrating Christmas.

After the Cold War, the US has turned into an even more unscrupulous interventionist. Its frequent attempts to export the Color Revolution brought the Arab Spring. Unfortunately, it only brought an Arab Winter and an Arab Disaster.

In his On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare, Noam Chomsky sorrowfully wrote, "This relatively short period has arguably seen the greatest number of massacres in human history. Most of them were performed in the name of lofty slogans such as freedom and democracy."

The US boasts its grandiose offshore balance strategy with its soft power and smart power when in reality, it is merely thick black theory full of schemes. In contrast to the Eastern tradition of valuing harmony and peace, the Anglo-Saxon world (the US and the UK) believes that disagreements and conflicts equals opportunity.

The US manipulated NATO to squeeze Russia's geo-space, and undermined the EU-Russia reconciliation and oil pipeline program. It supported Brexit to cripple the EU and reinforce US' control over Europe. It sowed discord in the Middle East in order to control the oil resources and made Iran an enemy of the region.

When it comes to China, the US spares no effort. The US rocked the boat in the South China Sea and made provocations, which led to turbulence in regional stability. It casts controllable tension on the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Straits to hinder peace progresses. At the China-India border, it fanned the flames of conflicts and mediated in favor of India. It also used the Quad to lure India into confronting China, intending to cause a lose-lose fight between the two developing giants.

Recently, the US obstructed the passing of a joint statement on ceasefire and cessation of violence and the protection of civilians at the Security Council despite the ongoing escalation of the Palestine-Israel situation and the overwhelming majority of UNSC members' call for an immediate ceasefire. Rather than taking proactive measures to promote peace, the US stands ready to fuel tension.

Time and time again, history has proven that the US and its allies always bring with them trouble and turmoil.

7. Disunion

In a war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times. - Winston Churchill

Forty years ago, the US forced Japan to sign the Plaza Accord to secure its economic supremacy. The Japanese hi-tech industry was dismantled and the Japanese economy crippled for decades. Today, it turns to South Korea and Chinese Taiwan, threatening to relocate their semiconductor industries back to the US.

From 2009 to 2017, the US imposed its long-arm jurisdiction on Europe, whereby it collected US$190 billion in penalties, monopolized massive quantities of personal information, and forcefully took over European enterprises that were sanctioned. In an attempt to reap profits, the Wall Street recently tried to overturn the century-old European football world by forming an independent European Super League, which was widely resisted and disgracefully aborted.

The COVID-19 outbreak put the US in the spotlight. The egomaniac that it is, the US selfishly fed itself even at the cost of its allies. The mask war between the US and its allies is indeed an abomination.

Ever since they have developed the COVID-19 vaccines, the US has ranked its allies. It is generous to Anglo-Saxon purebreds like the UK and Australia, lukewarm to Europe and other common allies, but haggles over ounces with Japan and South Korea.

Japan, challenged by the upcoming Olympics and the worsening pandemic, received no vaccines from the US. The Japanese Prime Minister had to beg American vaccine companies. The vaccination rate is 1 percent in Japan, which is only one fiftieth of the US. The South Korean foreign minister also begged the US for help but heard a resolute no.

At the early stage of the pandemic, India offered the Trump administration large quantities of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). Now that India is in the midst of a severe pandemic, it has received neither the vaccine raw materials that the US promised, nor any American oxygen or inhalators.

The US is an octopus and its allies are its tentacles. It uses them to try and rule the world but stay alert to prevent them from growing too strong. Once its interests are threatened, the octopus won't hesitate to cut off one or more of the tentacles or even feed on them.

So how could such an egoist and a corrupted alliance system take on global governance? How could they shamelessly claim to represent the international community?

After the Vietnam War, former Senator J. William Fulbright expressed his deep concern about the aggrandizement of the Arrogance of Power that would incur immeasurable destruction, and excessive expansion that would result in the nation's decline.

Recently, renowned American scholar Joseph Nye rang the alarm again: more and more countries are beyond the control of the US. It is extremely dangerous to believe the US is invincible.

What goes around comes around, and where vice is, vengeance follows. There will be severe penalties for the seven sins committed by the US. Justice may be served later, but it will never be absent.

[thetawlfoundat]

NEVER AGAIN...THE "WHY" SOLUTION

The'tawl Foundatio

·

Greetings!

LOVE is the key to all of this. As you well know. Your love for all the freedoms promised by the American dream is admirable. RACE, COLOR, CREED. The despicable racial and separatist vitriol of adults -like myself- have met a worthy and more powerful adversary. Namely YOU! I thank you for your proactivism. YOU ARE AMERICA'S future (literally) and it gives me great satisfaction to know you have begun a movement worthy of national and global attention.

I am a 44 year old man. Before I divulge my story I want to bring your attention to THE SOLUTION to your dilemma. That dilemma being WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT SCHOOL SHOOTINGS TO STOP THIS FROM HAPPENING IN THE FUTURE. On CNN today @Michaelsmerconich posed one question. Would this have happened if the "INITIAL" threat was one of Islamic terrorism? My answer and the resounding answer of minorities and all sensible Americans is NO! If there was any threat from such an entity the FBI would have without any doubt intervened. As a NATION, in this lies our sanctity and sanctuary of peace. However, it is also noteworthy to point out here lies the premise to your solution.

(MOVEMENTS)

The entire NFL and Awards season has been dedicated to minorities and genders protesting the un-written and accepted "policies & practices" of "MALE" America, Law Enforcement and/or the judicial system as a whole. Demonstrations have been born from the practices that have become so engrained into MALE society, the culture of law enforcement and/or the Judicial System. This is the fuel for MOVEMENTS. However, and sadly, AS UNIVERSAL LAW WOULD HAVE IT- the "EFFECT" of this Gender inequality, racial insensitivity, ethical and specific religious profiling has effected the innocent. The innocent that I am referring to is your School.

(The Law of Logic)

To my logical point. We know there are laws that have been passed by congress to stop what happened to your peaceful school. We know there was plenty of opportunity and evidence prior to this "act of evil" to prevent its manifestation in your lives and the lives of all American children and parents. However, when the "identity" of the suspect was ran thru a data-base NOTHING SHOWED UP. WHY? is the crux and the genesis of your solution to this problem. WHY...indeed!

(Data-base)

Where there is a corrupt (meaning a deviation from point A to point B) and forgone perception that incidences -of gun violence- like this usually or only present themselves in the inner city, or among a certain group of people. Or where there is some implicitly presumed notion that a certain gender must succumb to another. THERE EXIST the catalyst for the infringement of basic human and civil rights that may lead to the slaughter of the innocent. Why? Because when there is no DATA to "identify" a person with certain "cookie-cutted" data-points; data collected and processed thru a corrupted human perception allow the guilty to go un-noticed or run free.

That the "SUSPECT" is usually of black, brown or middle eastern origin. Should shock us all. Either there are races, ethnicities or religious groups that are innately predisposed to commit crime or there is racism. A racism rooted so deep that it deters collective analysis of a threat of demotic terror. Which this school shooting was. This deterrence happens in the minds of good people with good intentions I may add. In the hearts and minds of Americans who love and want to protect this country. THIS IS WHAT INSTITUTIONAL AND SYSTEMIC RACISM looks likes and unfortunately these are its effects. I want you to be aware: The ATF along with local police were arresting young black men because they had guns in You Tube rap videos. So I applaud the FBI Directors honesty in saying they dropped the ball. They could have and should have stopped this.

(Obvious)

One of the the students in your school expressed that she did not care about the feelings of those who lobby for their right to bare arms. She stated that if they had not been thru what she had been thru that they could not comment on the subject. What is obvious is that this is the same message Black America has been championing for decades. It is hard for those to comment who have not been the target of police profiling or violence. Who have not been sentenced 100x worse for a drug crime because it is called "crack" instead of cocaine. Who are the first to be arrested and warrants issued for the slightest articulated suspicion. Who have police routinely lie about on the stand and under oath. Who have had judges rule in favor of police brutality and murder and no one apologize or even appears conciliatory about the death of a young black person. Usually children your age. This too goes unreported. To Black America when we see tragedies like these it speaks to the stark racism in our Social and judicial systems. How else could someonewith so many indicators "fall-thru-the-cracks".

Your generation -unlike my generation who seem stuck on stupid- can no longer elect officials who appoint judges and political officials who further foster ideologies that spawn different application of laws, police procedures, judicial and congressional policies, strategies,and tactics- based on race, color or creed. If we want to be truthful. It is obvious, in your case, that such ideology played a pivotal role in preventing a tragedy; as ALL the signs -in a typical case- and more were evident. When every law enforcement tool was present to stop this person from killing. In law -which I taught (in prison) for 8 years- all you need is a an "articulated suspicion" and then some "probable cause" to get a warrant. Making threats on-line IS "probable cause" given the context of the situation. So please do not let theses people misguide or mislead you. ADULTS LIE. VERY WELL; I may add. It is not about making more laws (other than banning assault weapons) or giving police more tools its about the application of the existing laws and tools that they have.

(CHANGE)

We all know what is needed. We all know what we must do. And it calls for every American to look within themselves and change who they are. How they perceive people. Because we elect people who live out our perceptions. Those perceptions become laws and the agenda of very zealous politicians. Who create a culture of their own entitlement to serving WE THE PEOPLE. I heard a White house aid state that she is blessed to serve at the pleasure of the President. I think she forgets along with every other politician and even the PRESIDENT is that they ALL serve at the pleasure of THE PEOPLE. Not just a certain sect of people or color or race or ideology but ALL AMERICANS. We need to change who we are and I contact you in earnest because I DO NOT BELIEVE today's adults "WANT" to change they want to MAKE AMERICA GREAT "AGAIN". Which goes against the Universal LAW of change and evolution. They CANNOT win. If they do more Pulse Night Clubs. More Vegas and Church Shootings just MORE OF THIS NONSENSE my the MINORITY OF PEOPLE WHO HATE.

It is irresponsible for anyone in power to promote or suggest openly that LAWS be applied to ONE SPECIFIC group more aggressively. FOR EXAMPLE: To make drug laws tougher for Street Gangs (Code For Blacks and Browns) than they are for Pharmaceutical companies -who both sell poison to people- is INSIDIOUS AND CORRUPT. At its core, this ideology, obstructs justice and the natural order of fairness. YOU CAN STOP THIS MINDSET. You MUST stop this from continuing. CHANGE IS YOUR SOLUTION. Ask your parents to CHANGE and their friends and all Americans. This is the "WHY" solution. "Why" this happened and "WHY" -if we all change- this will never happen again.

(WHO I AM)

I am a 44 year old Black Man Incarcerated for 17 years for a non-violent drug conspiracy. I was sentenced to LIFE in prison. Why? because crack -which the U.S. Supreme Court stated was not scientifically distinguishable from cocaine- was punished 100x more harsher than powder cocaine. For many blacks like myself the system is not just. The system is not fair. And unless you have gone thru it as a black person...you really can't comment about it. I need CHANGE. For my kids and grandkids. I need CHANGE in the mindset of law enforcement where gunning down innocent black men at stop lights who are unarmed does not even have the 'probability of criminal wrongdoing' (meaning can't get an indictment). Where they lock a young black person up in a rap video for having a gun but can't stop a racist hate-monger from killing 17 innocent people and wounding 15 others and destroying the peaceful fabric of a community that loves first. This is who I am. This your solution. This is what must change so this will NEVER happen AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!!!

Sincerely, Eric Van Buren #11044-068 @THETAWLFOUNDAT The Tawl Foundation/fb Prison-Insider (Paris)

American teens demand 'Never Again'

Movements run by school students are spreading…BBC.COM

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