Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Dont Count Black Lives...
https://www.theroot.com/this-is-only-the-deadliest-shooting-in-u-s-history-bec-1819112938
Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Don’t Count Black Lives
Michael Harriot
News reporters and anchors have repeatedly referred to the recent tragedy in Las Vegas as the “worst mass shooting in U.S. history.” Like all things that are constantly repeated, the proclamation has become fact.
In 2013 a report by the Congressional Research Service defined a public mass shooting (pdf) this way:incidents occurring in relatively public places, involving four or more deaths—not including the shooter(s)—and gunmen who select victims somewhat indiscriminately. The violence in these cases is not a means to an end such as robbery or terrorism.
So, according to that broad definition, we wondered: Is 64-year-old Stephen Paddock the worst mass shooter in the long history of America? Does the Las Vegas incident qualify as the “deadliest” mass-shooting incident?
Only if you don’t count black people.
(snip)
The Bombing of Black Wall Street
On June 1, 1921, white rioters looted and burned the black area of Tulsa, Okla., known as Black Wall Street. Angry at the economic success of blacks in the area (the area became known as “Black Wall Street” because of the number of successful businesses and wealthy black inhabitants), white Tulsans accused a black man of raping a girl and attacked the area.
While white citizens used dynamite and planes to bomb the city, leaving more than 8,000 people homeless, eyewitness accounts charge that the vast majority of the people killed (estimates range from 80 to 300) died because the city’s law-enforcement officers deputized every able-bodied white man and handed out weapons from the city’s armory.
Bloody Island Massacre
In the mid-1800s, Charles Stone and Andre Kelsey began enslaving the Native American Pomo of Clearlake, Calif. They forced the Pomo to bring them their daughters for sexual pleasure. They killed the Pomo for trying to escape. They only “paid them” 4 cups of wheat per day. One day, two of the Pomo, Shuk and Xasis, went to look for more food, borrowing Stone and Kelsey’s horses. When it became apparent that they wouldn’t find food, the men knew that Stone and Kelsey would kill them if they found out that they had used their horses, so they killed Stone and Kelsey instead.
Capt. Nathaniel Lyon was searching for the men to punish them and brought soldiers and white civilians. When they found members of the Pomo tribe hiding on Bloody Island, near Clearlake, they slaughtered 60 of the island’s 400 inhabitants. On their way back, they killed another 75 on the Russia River for good measure.
Lyon was never disciplined.
Colfax Massacre
On April 13, 1873, black people in Colfax, La., began gathering at the courthouse and digging trenches. They were afraid that whites, disgruntled by Republican rule and a court decision that allowed blacks to vote, were about to attack. A civilian militia of angry white men surrounded the courthouse and convinced the blacks to hand in their weapons and surrender. The black citizens complied.
And that’s when the massacre started.
As many as 40 times more blacks were killed than whites. They invaded the courthouse and killed unarmed men. They hunted down women and children trying to hide in the surrounding woods. They dumped bodies in the river. They took 50 prisoners but later summarily killed them one by one. Historian Eric Foner called it “the bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era ... ”
At least 150 black citizens were killed. Three white men died. No one was ever convicted of a crime.
Thibodaux Massacre
In 1887 nearly 100,000 black sugar-plantation workers in Thibodaux, La., decided to protest their unfair treatment, low wages and the holding of workers’ wages until the end of the season, forcing them into a kind of indentured servitude.
In response, Judge Taylor Beattie, who owned a sugar plantation, declared martial law and paid a 300-man private militia to keep the peace. The militia ordered every black person in the city to show a pass or leave. The blacks who didn’t were rounded up with their families and executed. In all, between 35 and 100 blacks were killed. The count is not official because some bodies were burned.
No one was ever ... do I have to keep saying this?
From the comments:
Those only count as the worst if you ignore the Bear River, Oak Run, and Wounded Knee massacres though...
There does seem to be a common theme among the shooters though.
Good point to reflect upon: "There does seem to be a common theme among the shooters though."
29 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
History is replete with massacres of Native people- Sand Creek, Wounded Knee and on and on... 
