Remembering the Tulsa 1921 Race Massacre
Right now in Tulsa, Oklahoma we are commemorating a very dark part of our city and state’s history, the 100th anniversary of the race massacre that took place in Tulsa on May 31st and June 1st of 1921. I was born and raised in the Tulsa area, yet I was never taught about this horrifying event in school. I didn’t learn of this bleak and shameful part of Tulsa’s history until I was an adult. In fact, I was quite ignorant of it. However, I’ve learned that we cannot let our ignorance further perpetuate injustice.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6a (NKJV)
I mentioned last year, that the more I have educated myself on issues of racial injustice and systemic racism, the more my eyes have been opening and the more empathy I have developed. As my empathy has grown, my internal sense of justice has also increased along with my desire to respond to injustice.
Be a part of the conversation of injustice
I didn’t learn about the race massacre because others were silent. As I’ve also stated before on issues of racial reconciliation, my goal is just to be a part of the conversation and to be a voice instead of remaining silent. I never want my silence about issues of injustice to give people the impression that I am somehow a supporter of injustice or racism. Therefore, I feel it is my obligation to speak up and speak out into my sphere of influence.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer on events of the Holocaust
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“To say nothing is saying something. You must denounce things you are against or one might believe that you support things you really do not.” Germany Kent
“In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Silence, apathy, and indifference can be a sin.
“Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” James 4:17 (NLT)