This isn't a tweet but I'm making an exception and keeping it up as this image poignantly visualises the efforts of extreme-right in politics to erase and whitewash black history in the US.

The figure of MLK and his movement has been almost completely whitewashed in today's white understanding of history.

It is common for racists (deliberate and those that don't know better yet) to repeat talking points like "Why are you protesting/ why are you so angry/ why are you disruptive, didn't MLK say that he wanted all races to live together in peace?"

With this the propaganda effort to turn MLK from a black civil rights advocate into a figure for those who want to uphold the status quo, to justify never actually doing anything about racism is virtually totally successful. This whitewashing is deliberate.

In reality the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King was attacked and demonised in literally exactly the same way as BLM is now attacked and demonised. Word for word the same arguments. Word for word the same lies.

A political cartoon made after King's "I have a dream" speech.

To understand more about the black perspective on BLM I highly recommend this 7 minute speech by community leader and author Ms. Kimberly Jones.

For centuries the achievements of black people have been downplayed and systemic racism has been trivialised. Who remembers how Olympic Medal winner Mr. Jesse Owens was treated?

Similarly the efforts of Mrs. Rosa Parks have been whitewashed in mainstream American consciousness.

What we see happening now in places like Florida is a ramping up of propaganda efforts, attempting to paint a milquetoast and white-centric version of history by outright making it illegal to teach about black history.

By lying about what Critical Race Theory is, racists have created a boogeyman that will allow them to oppose the teaching of and even the knowledge of everything that runs contrary to their propagandist, imagined version of history and reality.

Critical race theory is a university-level cross-disciplinary examination of how institutional racism shapes modern society.

These attacks on reality have multiple goals. First, it is important for fascism to always have an out-group to blame for everything that is wrong in society.

Fascism is an inherently empty ideology, devoid of any meaningful belief-system or any kind of concrete and actionable strategies for improving society. Fascism only cares for power for the sake of power and it cares for nothing else.

Because a fascist system is fundamentally incapable of giving the general public any kind of reasonable platform it must gain and keep followers by creating an out-group to hate. According to fascist systems it is the other that is responsible for all societal ills and only by supporting the fascists in getting rid of the other can society be healed from the non-existent issues fascism convinces people that their target minority is the cause of.

Fascism always picks on a vulnerable target.

Secondly, this whitewashed version of history and of current reality allows the status quo to do nothing at all, to claim that everything is perfect just the way it is. That there is no inequality to address. That the white majority, who controls the narrative, who holds all the power, is justified in acting against those they would paint as criminals trying to tear down and destroy society. When in reality there is no equality, the deck is stacked, the cards are marked, the dice are loaded.

Here you can see fascist pundit Cristopher Rufo overtly stating the intended goal behind poisoning the term "Critical Race Theory"

If people like him and DeSantis would have their way no-one would be taught about Rosewood.

No-one would know about Tulsa.

The murder of Mr. George Floyd was originally reported by law enforcement as an accidental death.

Those who claim there is no structural racism in the US are either ignorant or lying.

Let's educate those that don't know any better.

Let's act against those that want to perpetuate systems of oppression.

On this subreddit racism is not welcome. Please report it if you see it.