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1/N the genocide of Black Americans: a thread
2/N "The United Nations, on December 9, 1948, defines genocide as any killings on the basis of race, or in it specificities, words as 'killing members of the group.' Any intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnic or ...
3/N ... religious group is genocide, according to the Convention" - William L. Patterson
4/N In 1951, William L. Patterson wrote "We Charge Genocide", a document to the United Nations in which he attempted to sway the UN to charge the U.S. with the genocide of Black Americans. The purpose of this thread is not to further Patterson's accusations, but to simply ...
5/N ... illuminate the fact that the events Patterson equated to genocide in 1951 are still occurring today.
6/N "We shall submit evidence, tragically voluminous, 'acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, religious group as such,' - in this case the 15,000,000 Negro people of the U.S. We cite killings by police ...
7/N ... killings by incited gangs, killings at night by masked men, killings always on the basis of 'race.'" - William L. Patterson
8/N The infamous case of Emmett Till will forever be a stain on American history in which two white men killed an innocent young black boy. their case went to trial, but unfortunately they were found not guilty by an all-white jury of their peers.
9/N The 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, in which George Zimmerman hunted down the young man and shot and killed him after an altercation between the two ensued. Zimmerman was later arrested and acquitted by a jury of his peers. https://www.britannica.com/event/shooting-of-Trayvon-Martin
10/N Time and time again the U.S. judicial system has failed Black Americans, but these two cases highlight two of some its greatest failures to the Black community. Emmett Till was murdered for being Black, Trayvon Martin was murder for being Black ...
11/N ... and neither received justice Because they were Black.
12/N Just 8 years after Trayvon Martin's death, we have seen we have seen another Lynch-style murder # AhmaudArbery. Even more troubling is that two months had passed before anyone was even arrested.
13/N While hopes are high that these three men (the two gun-wielding men and the camera man) will receive harsh punishments, it has been pointed out that even George Zimmerman was also arrested at one point, but we know how that played out.
14/N #GeorgeFloyd is yet another example of an unarmed Black Man that has been killed b y the police. The gruesome video of his death shows the arresting officer, Derek Chauvin with his knee on the neck of Floyd for 9 mins until he was pronounced dead.
15/N Consequently, there have been riots all across the U.S. as protestors demand the arrest and prosecution of all of the officers involved, but mainly the arresting officer. Below is a picture that has surfaced on twitter of Officer Chauvin wearing a Trump-like hat with the ...
16/N ... phrase "MAKE WHITES GREAT AGAIN" embroidered on the front.
17/N In addition to these troubling images, more information has surfaced about Derek Chauvin. He has a history of complaints regarding police misconduct that unchecked by Minneapolis PD. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-police-officer-conduct-complaint-1006672/
18/N It would be irresponsible not to draw parallels between the 1992 Rodney King riots and the 2020 Minnesota riots. The first 2 pictures are of the Rodney King riots and the last two are form the riots in Minneapolis that occurred just yesterday.
19/N The Killing of Black Americans by the boys in blue is a tragic phenomenon that has been going on for decades. The popular 2017 movie "Detroit" is based on the Algiers Motel incident in which 3 black men were killed by police officers in the 1967 Detroit riots.
20/N The officers were tried in court, but were acquitted. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/04/detroit-and-the-police-brutality-that-left-three-black-teens-dead-at-the-algiers-motel/
21/N The police have killed 1,099 people in 20129. Black people were 24% of those killed despite being only 13% of the population. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
22/N Police and civilian killings of Black Men are not the only accusation William L. Patterson brings forth against the U.S. He also identifies another form of genocide which he labels: "the Emasculation of Democracy".
23/N "'Terror and killing members of the group,' in violation of Article II of the Genocide Convention, has been used to prevent the Negro people from voting in huge and decisive areas of the United States in which they are the preponderant population, thus dividing the whole ...
24/N ... American people, emasculating mass movements for democracy and securing the grip off predatory reaction on the federal, state, county, and city governments." - William L. Patterson
25/N The 15th Amendment to the constitution, ratified in 1870, granted Black American Men the right to vote in the United States; however, that was not the case - especially in the KKK-ruled south. https://www.crf-usa.org/black-history-month/race-and-voting-in-the-segregated-south
26/N Even today, more than 100 years after the ratification fo the 15th Amendment, Black Americans are still seeing their right to vote infringed upon. While the government (Republicans) cannot outright suppress the Black vote as they were able to in the past, they have ...
27/N ... devised strategic tactics to ensure that the Black vote is compromised.
28/N In the fight for fair and equal elections across the nation, the Brennan center has outlined a few courses of action that the government can undertake in their pursuit of a better America black and brown folks. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-fight-voter-suppression-nationwide
29/N The third and final charge of genocide that William L. Patterson presents to the U.N. is economic genocide: "We shall offer proof of economic genocide: deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated got bring about its destruction in whole or in part. ...
30/N ... Negroes are the last hired and the first fired. they are forced into city ghettos or their rural equivalents. they are segregated legally or through sanctioned violence into filthy, disease-bearing housing, and deprived by law of adequate medical care and education" -WLP
31/N Discriminatory housing practices is something that is all too common to Black Americans. Not only have Black Americans been disproportionately affected by these practices for decades, they occur nationwide. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2016/12/15/294374/the-united-states-history-of-segregated-housing-continues-to-limit-affordable-housing/
32/N Not only do Black Americans find it difficult to obtain quality housing in the United States, but they have a hard time finding stable and meaningful workplaces in the job market. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2019/12/05/478150/african-americans-face-systematic-obstacles-getting-good-jobs/
33/N as previously mentioned, the purpose of this thread is not to further Patterson's argument that the U.S. is responsible fo rate genocide of Black Americans. it is to simply draw parallels between the past and the present. With so many of the discriminatory tactics ...
34/N ... outlined by Patterson in 1951 still prevalent in today's society, it begs the question: how much has *really* changed?
