How Everything is about Race, Pt 1.
Yes. Everything.
It’s time for a new series over here at Banned Histories of Race in America! Don’t worry, nothing will change on your end. Posts will still arrive at the same time every week and they’ll still feature the usual hidden histories, little-known biographies and facts everyone should know. But in addition, BHoRiA will also now include How Everything is About Race, a monthly short explainer of the racism behind three seemingly random things in American plain sight.
I know, I know. Not everything in this country can be about race, right? Wrong. Everything. And this month, just to prove it, I blindfolded myself and threw three darts at a board here at my apartment that lists every possible thing. The darts landed on…
1: The Oklahoma Panhandle
You ever wonder why Oklahoma is shaped like that? Like, why doesn’t Texas just go all the way up to Kansas and Colorado? Well, way back in 1820, the Missouri Compromise declared that slavery would be prohibited above the 36°30′ latitude line. So, when Texas became a state in 1845 – wanting more than anything to keep Black people enslaved – it decided to end its territory right there at 36°30′, the southern border of what would eventually become Oklahoma.
2: “Marijuana”
Whenever I see the names of plants, I just assume some botanist was having fun with Greek or Latin. For example, cannabis is Latin from the Greek kannabis. This is not the case with marijuana. We got that word from dipshit bigot government officials in the 1930s. They were looking for yet one more reason to hurt Black and brown people. But instead of self-examination, outgrowing their prejudices and living easier lives, they decided to proclaim cannabis a plague and officially title that plague a brown-sounding name.
Harry Anslinger was the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and he once said, “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, results from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and others.”
The Marihuana Tax Act was passed soon after and any public discussion pro or con would require the use of that word by default.
3: Paramedics
Ambulances have been around since the Catholic conquests of Spain in the 1400s. Then, the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s drove a military surgeon named Dr. Dominique Jean Larrey to innovate the ambulance, making it faster. Innovations aside, ambulances weren’t much more than something between a taxi and a hearse. That is, until the 1960s, when a different kind of war brought the ambulance a different kind of advancement.
Freedom House was a Pittsburgh civil rights organization that focused on job training and delivery services for the city’s Black community. Back then, ambulances were primarily run by police departments. For all the obvious reasons (including these) Black Pittsburghers were reluctant to call the police for an ambulance and so Freedom House stepped in.
The organization began training recruits in anatomy, CPR, nursing, physiology and defensive driving. They used donated and refurbished ambulances and cut the average response time from never and being called the n-word to under 10 minutes. The first year they saved an estimated 200 lives and by the 1970s, ambulances across the country were offering en route emergency care.
There you have it! Three seemingly random examples from American geography, language and a public service all showing How Everything is about Race! Who knows where the darts will land next month? Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think about this new series!
https://daily.jstor.org/why-oklahoma-has-a-panhandle/
https://samuelj.substack.com/p/the-war-on-everybody-not-white-i
https://time.com/6215072/first-paramedics-black-men-history/
https://samuelj.substack.com/p/five-unfortunate-facts-about-police-5d5
And of course, when the Black paramedics had demonstrated their competence and success at professionalizing EMS, white people stepped in and claimed ownership, pushing Black people to the back. The book American Sirens explains it all.
So grateful for your brilliant mind and your Satanic music, Samuel.