American History Shows that “The North” has Always Been Horribly Racist
Over the past 4 years, I’ve done a fair amount of reading on the topic of ‘race’ in America. I’ve read books that outline the history of segregation, ones that explore the specific origins of white supremacy, and others that focus on race relations in specific states.
In all of my reading, one theme has remained consistently clear. America’s southern region has always been a convenient scapegoat to hide the rest of the country’s nastiness. Tearing down confederate statues, the constant lambasting of southern politicians, and other highly-publicized acts take the focus away from the fact that the rest of the country plays just as integral of a role, if not a larger one, in the poisoning of America [with racism]. People are quick to agree if you call places like Louisiana or Arkansas racist, but will be more hesitant to agree if you refer to places like New York or Illinois as such.
But…….. why? Why have we chosen to conveniently ignore the ugliness that resides in Wisconsin and Minnesota? Oregon and California? The answer is obviously complex. But I think that this state of intentional ignorance has been aroused with the mind and heart-numbingly tragic shooting that just occurred in Buffalo, NY.
Personally, I have always thought of New York as a racist area. Pockets of black excellence have thrived there, but were short-lived. In fact, across the North and Midwest, black people’s attempts to create their own communities were constantly thwarted. The “Tulsa Race Massacre” of 1921 that has recently become so notorious was actually part of a larger and nastier trend of race riots in America — and in no way were these riots just confined to the South.
All too often, it feels like we learn about American history in a vacuum. We learn about isolated events rather than the larger trends and overall environment that caused them. With racism, we are taught that it begins with slavery and ends with Martin Luther King. The truth is that racism and slavery didn’t go anywhere, and we as a country are the manifestation of these two principles stretched to their limits. In other words: we will never escape the evils of race because these evils are so intricately woven into the very fabric of our nation.
I’m currently reading White Rage by Carol Anderson and just finished the excellent PBS documentary “Jim Crow of the North”, and both detail pieces of history wherein newly freed slaves were brutalized by mobs of white people who were upset over recent draft laws and other perceived social grievances (such as black people owning property).
The period of time between 1860 and 1960 was unjustly awful for black Americans, so much so that these years are often regarded as the ‘nadir’ (lowest point) of race relations in America. The North had a loud and visceral response to the slaves being freed — white people DID NOT want newly freed black people moving into “their” states, towns, or cities…. and probably didn’t want them living in their country.
I’d imagine that Abraham Lincoln himself was hesitant to free the slaves, since before doing so, he drafted a plan to ship them (once free) to a colony in South America. In White Rage, Anderson details how Lincoln literally held a conference wherein he invited black leaders to inform and convince them of the plan [to move all of the newly freed black people]. One of his key arguments was that it was actually black peoples’ fault for the conditions that led up to the civil war:
“But for your race among us there could not be war.”
I find this piece of history particularly interesting because it highlights a sentiment that was commonly held in the North.
Many Northern whites, rather than acknowledge their sins and prejudices, doubled down on them and actually blamed black people for living in poor economic conditions and for the overall poor state of American society. Ignoring the fact that these people had just been held in bondage for hundreds of years, a significant portion of America agreed with Lincoln- black people might be ‘free’ from slavery, but they’re still not equal to whites in any setting, context, or legal definition.
Most states already had laws barring black people from voting, and black women were unable to do so at a federal level until 1965 (black men gained the right in 1870 — that’s striking).
When I read about this topic, I’m always struck with a mixture of amazement and despair when the story of race in America starts to unravel just a bit more. Seeing how far the story goes back and just how many terrible seeds were planted helps me to understand this country’s history better than almost anything else. If the president at the time, Lincoln, can be quoted as saying that he never wanted social equality between blacks and whites, it’s fair to assume that a large portion of his voter base felt that way as well. He wouldn’t be the first nor the last president to hold such a belief.
That would mean Lincoln’s family, other people he knew, other people in his town, people that he worked with, and just about any other American citizen had the potential to have this exact same view, if not a more explicit version of it. This is how I like to think of history — as interactions between people. People don’t just pick up racist ideals from their red, thick-necked, beer-chugging dads (though that happens too), they pick them up from a broader culture. People absorb prejudices and become exposed to new racist ideas from social interactions that reinforce or potentially even create these prejudices.
For some reason, we can easily understand how racism spreads when we think about the South. But our fatal mistake is not understanding how it applies to other regions in the country.
In 1863, the Draft Riots took place in New York, which represented some of the nastiest injustices ever committed against black Americans.
“Black men and black women were attacked, but the rioters singled out the men for special violence. On the waterfront, they hanged William Jones and then burned his body. White dock workers also beat and nearly drowned Charles Jackson, and they beat Jeremiah Robinson to death and threw his body in the river. Rioters also made a sport of mutilating the black men’s bodies, sometimes sexually. A group of white men and boys mortally attacked black sailor William Williams — jumping on his chest, plunging a knife into him, smashing his body with stones — while a crowd of men, women, and children watched. None intervened, and when the mob was done with Williams, they cheered, pledging “vengeance on every nigger in New York.” (link)
Because of the way my mind works, my first thought when reading about these sorts of events is that the men who committed these atrocities had friends and families. They had coworkers, parents, and spouses. The very fact that these men existed meant that the rage that propelled them was encouraged by those around them. More crucially….. it also means that these men were vectors for racism; they could both spread it and be affected by it.
It means that these men were actively and continually keeping alive a sin so egregious. They were passing it onto their kids, who passed it on to their friends, and so on. Could you imagine your dad coming home to tell you
“I beat the hell out of a bunch of niggers today. In fact, I drowned a few in the harbor with some other guys!”
This is a hypothetical quote — but it’s how I picture history in my head. Real people going back into society and having normal conversations about their actions. These draft riots were almost 200 years ago, which is what makes me shudder. For New York to have a racial legacy this brutal, we would expect to see such hatred re-animated in the present day. And we just have.
Historically, the North has never been friendly to black people. In fact, it’s been downright hostile. I understand that a high degree of racial diversity doesn’t necessarily mean that a state is a great place to live, but given the fact that blacks have been in this country just as long as whites (since.. you know.. they brought us) it’s extremely telling that the whitest states are in the North. It’s not just because of ‘migration patterns’, it’s because those states were successful in keeping black people out (and when they got in, down). Most migration patterns in the North were aimed at moving away from black people.
In my opinion, the South’s more overt and stereotypical brand of racism that they’re stuck with and accosted for is probably a result of the fact that they felt they were the ones who were ‘stuck’ with black people after the slavery ordeal. In “White Supremacy” by George M. Fredrickson, the author details how the south used racism and slavery not just for economic means, but as a means of social control. This happened in the North to an extent, but a culture developed in the South wherein racism was essentially the guiding force of any and all social interactions. They depended upon it as a moral code of how to behave. This difference, to me, is key in why we as a country are able to focus on the sins of the South rather than those of the North. Extreme cultural differences (yet high levels of racism) resulted in vastly different ways of socializing. Unfortunately, many black people and other minorities who inhabit racist areas of northern states were probably already painfully aware of this history. This history is new to a lot of people, but that’s probably intentional on the part of our public education system.
By focusing on the South, school curriculums can continue to peddle the idea that racism was born and killed there. Northern states were some of the last to free their slaves, and it shows. The infallibly awful truth of holding human beings in bondage and living according to racist ideals will always be reflected in the North. I mentioned earlier that events like confederate takedowns are commonly publicized and applauded — no such thing exists for the North. Nothing exists to commemorate the thousands and millions that were legally barred, physically forced, or outright killed in the region for nothing other than everlasting, generational prejudice. To me, aspects of the North’s brand of racism throughout history are much more…evil.
So many black people saw the North as a refuge from the terror in the South, but were met with disappointment, violence, and evil. When I think of New York, I think of racism. And I’ve thought that way for a long time.
We can identify the loud, bearded conservative from Tennessee, but are not so keen on acknowledging the racist Italians or Irish of the Northeast who have made their disdain for Black people clear multiple times throughout history. Or the Germans and Swedish of the Midwest who did just the same.
The shooting in Buffalo didn’t surprise me, but it crushed my spirit nonetheless. An 18-year-old child with all of the resources and amenities of the modern world chose to take such a path that even the most disturbed adults wouldn’t dare to take. That should terrify everyone because it perfectly encapsulates the potential for extreme evil and violence that this country can spawn. People like that don’t exist in a bubble all on their own, they exist in a broader culture with friends and families.
Americans should be wary of how we understand racism and how it truly operates in this country. I don’t expect everyone to take a keen interest in reading race-based literature, but I do expect everyone to understand exactly how we got to where we are today. Americans have encouraged a culture of questioning when it comes to race — we ask “Is racism alive and well?” rather than learning to just condemn it outright. American culture is one where racist experiences and racism itself are questioned and tiptoed around rather than accepted at face value for being as commonplace as they are.
We aren’t trying to make anyone feel guilty, and we aren’t asking for handouts (and if some people are, who cares? they might be justified). White people refuse to listen to real American history because it frightens them. And I think that’s pathetic. It’s not about ‘blaming white people for everything’, it’s about laying the consequences both of historical and contemporary racism bare and plain. It’s about facts and knowledge. It’s about being able to connect the Buffalo tragedy to the rest of the tragedy that is American history. If you can’t do that, you don’t understand anything about this nation.
