I was just thinking about this.

One of my in-laws had his own general store in the Jim Crow South during the First Great Depression.

Black people patronized it exclusively.

He extended families looong lines of credit.

He started to get his and his wife's family out of debt.*

*Sharecropper's debt. This was basically the White Folks Vow To Continue To Make Black People Suffer After Emancipation Tax.

Anyway. He built a house. Nobody went hungry if he could help it. Born in a Black township, he hoped to help forge a new one.

Aaaaaaand he was lynched.

I think about this a lot when folks have the AUDACITY to talk about how their "great-grandfather came to this country with FIVE DOLLARS and built an X empire!"

Your grandfather wasn't lynched for succeeding.

So there's that.

Reparations for Black Americans aren't just about slavery. Truly.

(Poor @MargaretNrthwd inadvertently started this thread!) https://twitter.com/MargaretNrthwd/status/1386869625699319812?s=19