F*** Your Racist History

Over the centuries, white supremacy has been marketed to American children through popular toys like "mammy" dolls and in cartoons with names like "Little Black Sambo." More recently, several of Dr. Seuss' children’s books have also been criticized as being insensitive by promoting racist stereotypes. Many rhymes and songs that we learned in our own childhoods, and that we may now teach our children or grandchildren, are also deeply rooted in racism. This not-so-subtle conditioning to white supremacy as children can lead to unconscious bias in adults. In this episode of F*** Your Racist History, we explore the racist undertones in our beloved childhood entertainment as well as the overt racism in some commonly used phrases and music, even the lyrics of the United States' National Anthem.

In the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, the anti-Latinx violence that continued to dominate Texas became state-sanctioned as it seeped into federal policies. During the early 20th century, Mexican citizens began to migrate into the United States to seek refuge from the Mexican Revolution's violence and turmoil. In response, the U.S. government sent Texas Rangers and soldiers to the border. Thousands of Mexican-Americans were lynched, burned alive, or brutally murdered by local ranchers, vigilante mobs, law enforcement, and the Army. "Juan Crow" laws codified discrimination against Latinx people in voting, employment, housing, education, and other key areas of life. And in the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Operation Wetback" program deported as many as 1.3 million Latinx immigrants, including 25-percent of all immigrants in Texas. For decades, U.S. health authorities also used noxious, often deadly chemicals like Zyklon B (the same chemical gas used to kill Jews during the Holocaust) to delouse Mexicans seeking to cross the border into the United States. Our story includes the account of the 1917 Bath Riots at the Santa Fe Bridge, when Carmelita Torres decided to fight back, and it sparked a massive resistance. We also trace the history of other violence and discriminatory policies targeting Latinx peoples and the continued anti-immigrant sentiment that still exists towards them today.

On this episode of F*** Your Racist History: "White Homeland: Part 2," we discuss historical efforts by American white supremacists to create white ethno-states within the United States via racial separatist movements like the Northwest Territorial Imperative and Oregon's racist founding history and their state constitution from 1859, which both forbid slavery while also prohibiting Black people from inhabiting land in the territory. Finally, we explore the broader impacts of systemic racism in our cities and suburbs, the creation of our highway infrastructure to aid in racial separatist efforts, and the often destructive effects of gentrification on American communities.

In this episode of F*** Your Racist History, we explore three specific efforts by American white supremacists to create a white homeland abroad. In 1859, a physician turned orator named George Bickley spearheaded a paramilitary movement designed to aid the Southern states in the formation of a massive slave Republic consisting of 36 slave states and encompassing most of South America. He named it Knights of the Golden Circle, and the society was rumored to have nearly 60,000 members on the eve of the Civil War. Then, in 1863, a smooth-talking Florida planter and self-proclaimed abolitionist named Bernard Kock convinced President Abraham Lincoln to start a colonization effort for ex-slaves on an island off the coast of Haiti called Île-à-Vache, or "Cow Island." Finally, when the Confederacy officially lost the Civil War, Southern slave owners who could not, or would not, face the uncertainty of their future abandoned the United States in favor of a slavery-friendly colony in Brazil where they transplanted their Southern practices and customs; they were called the "Confederados," and they still have descendants living there to this day.

Since the days of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, American politics have been rife with conflict and division, and there has been a rotating cast of political machines taking and losing power. During the volatile political era of the 1840s and 1850s, a nativist group called the "Know-Nothings" briefly held power on the national stage, maintaining staunch anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic stances. Because most of their members were American descendants of Anglo-Saxon colonists, the Know-Nothings also called themselves the "Native American Party," but make no mistake: Indigenous peoples were not welcome in their ranks. This was a white man's movement aimed at improving the livelihood and futures of "native-born" white Americans. Even though the Know-Nothing party officially ended in 1860, their violent and hateful members were absorbed into other political parties, namely the newly formed Republicans.

Phineas Taylor (P. T.) Barnum is remembered by many as America's "Greatest Showman." An entertainer with enduring ingenuity who could literally make something out of nothing. A so-called friend to the friendless, someone who employed people with physical disabilities in his circus during a time in history when they might not otherwise have been given any other opportunity. A businessman who was endeared and admired for his use of predatory Capitalism; there wasn't a lie he wouldn't tell, a person he wouldn't exploit, or a tale he wouldn't spin to make a buck, and people loved him for all of it. He proved that people didn't mind getting conned as long as they got their money's worth, and that con is still playing out in our memory of Barnum today. In this episode of F*** Your Racist History, we break down the real (and soiled) legacy of P. T. Barnum: his profiteering and exploitation of people with disabilities and enslaved people.

The fight for fair elections in the United States is as old as the country itself. From the Electoral College, to gerrymandering, to violent attacks on voting rights advocates, to dark money influencing campaigns, to new voter suppression laws introduced in 47 states in 2021, the concept of "one person, one vote" is still far from being realized. In this episode of F*** Your Racist History, we dig into the racist origins of U.S. elections and the ways politicians have spent centuries manipulating the system to keep their parties in power and disenfranchise American voters. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

It is no secret that slavery rests at the foundation of American capitalism and is often synonymous with the sugar, tobacco, and/or cotton plantations that fueled the Southern economy. What many may not know is that slavery also rests at the foundation of many notable corporations. From New York Life to Bank of America, Brooks Brothers to Aetna, many companies have benefitted from slavery. Some of the companies even acknowledged their involvement in slavery and offered apologies in an attempt to reconcile their tainted history but, is an apology enough? What about products like Aunt Jemima that use racist imagery, sports teams with stereotypically racist mascots, or tobacco companies who aggressively market menthol cigarettes to people of color? In this episode of F*** Your Racist History, we explore racism and its infiltration of American consumerism.

We live in troubled times. After numerous killings of unarmed people of color by police over the past decade and beyond, the relationship between the public and law enforcement seems to be on the brink of exploding. On one side of the debate, activists claim a systemic racism problem. On the other, supporters of law enforcement claim these horrific acts of force are either necessary or the actions of a few "bad apples." In 1963, President John F. Kennedy declared the week of May 15th National Police Week and said, "from the beginning of this Nation, law enforcement officers have played an important role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms which are guaranteed by the Constitution and in protecting the lives and property of our citizens." But, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Join me as we look into the racist origin story of America's laws and the people who enforce them.

In 1919, Henry Ford took over a weekly journal called the Dearborn Independent, and within a year and a half, turned it into one of the most notorious anti-Semitic fake news rags in the United States. Ford's anti-Jewish campaign ran for 91 consecutive issues and became a 4-volume book titled The International Jew. Ford's texts and ideas inspired Adolf Hitler and his murderous Nazis in the years leading up to WW2 and they continue to be widely circulated among violent white supremacists today. Americans are still struggling to come to terms with this deeply troubling aspect of Henry Ford's life because he's considered an American hero, and there are even officials trying to bury this story.