A look back in history to other oppressed groups and what they did to seek to justice

On this day in history, Timothy McVeigh was executed for what was then the worst terrorist act on U.S. soil—the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168—and remains the worst act of domestic terrorism in this country. McVeigh was apparently influenced to act following the Waco, Texas catastrophe, but he was also an avid adherent to the teachings of The Turner Diaries, a racist tome written by a “William  Pierce,” which told of a white racist’s worst “nightmare”—a country controlled by Jews who deployed black “enforcers” to exert their will on Christian white America. McVeigh was convinced—like Charles Manson before him—that a horrific act of violence could “set-off” a race war. It didn’t happen, but there are many like-minded people who still believe it is still possible to “reclaim” America with more presidents like Donald Trump in office, who is conducting a “race war” by simply looking away from or even “justifying” acts of “random” racist violence—just as he did in the aftermath of Charlottesville, or in keeping children caged in his border concentration camps.

Meanwhile, we are seeing the continuation of the George Floyd protests; I think it is interesting that the officer who had his knee on Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin (they apparently knew each other “personally”), is being charged with both manslaughter and murder, giving a jury a lesser “choice” to convict if it feels deliberate murder is political overreach to appease protestors. We are also observing that the black community is far more vocal about its real and perceived oppression, and that white guilt is well in play, as well as the media’s tendency to turn societal problems into “black and white” issues, whether literally between blacks and whites, or between women and men, or between rich and poor. There is seldom room for the “others” to get their voice heard in this country.

Take for instance that there are few in the media willing to make an “issue” of the discrimination and prejudice against other groups in this country—and I am not talking about the “plight” of mostly Indian H-1B visa workers, who receive plenty of sympathy on a daily basis from billionaire and corporate news outlets like Forbes and Fortune, publications that care little for the average working American. In regard to Hispanics, this is largely because there is almost no presence on even the so-called “liberal” media—meaning CNN and MSNBC—for their voices to be heard and speak to the atmosphere of paranoia fostered particularly by the Trump administration. Ana Navarro—who is a Republican “strategist”—has been left out in the cold during the Trump era, and is allowed to make only (very) occasional appearances on CNN as virtually the sole representative of the Hispanic view of Trump’s domestic agenda, especially against immigrants regardless of their legal status; she once got into an argument with a black conservative commentator about why Trump couldn’t find any Hispanics who were “qualified” to be in his cabinet, when he had Ben Carson in HUD, whose only “qualification” for the post being—besides being a shameless Trump supporter—was that he “lives in a house.”  The “real” reason, one suspects, is that Stephen Miller just doesn’t like being in the same room with one.

This lack of media interest means that people in this country seem to forget that if you beat on a “dog” often enough, it bites back—and there have been instances in the past where Hispanics have done just that. For example, there was the 1950-51 Empire Zinc mining strike, in which Mexican-American workers fought a system in which they were paid lower wages than white workers and forced to work in less safe conditions than white workers. Mexican-American workers picketed the mines, but after eight months a court injunction claimed the strike was illegal and picketers would be arrested if they continued. The men left the picket lines, but only to be replaced by their wives and children. It was only when strikebreakers resorted to physical confrontations with the women and jailed children did it draw national media attention, and Empire Zinc was forced to capitulate because of the bad PR. 

And there was the Delano Grape strike of 1965-1970, in which Mexican and Filipino farm workers formed the United Farm Workers union, most notably led by Cesar Chavez, who I once saw in person when he was joined by Jerry Brown and Jesse Jackson to speak in support of state employee healthcare benefits in front of the California state capitol building in Sacramento. The UFW fought more or less successfully to improve working conditions and pay for farmworkers, at least in California wine country, and later in other farm production sites, although with opposition from the Teamsters union, which unlike for the wine business it saw the additional strikes as a “threat” against the mostly white haulers’ livelihood. 

History also tells us that it wasn’t blacks in the city of Minneapolis who initiated aggressive protest against police violence; it was in fact the American Indian Movement, or AIM, which formed “patrols” to scour the streets to keep a lookout against rogue police officers and intervene if a potential conflict arose between a Native American and police. According to the Minneapolis Historical Society, 

Patrollers worked to decrease police brutality against Native people by limiting interaction between police and community members and offering itself as a crisis-resolution alternative. The patrol would also observe “any irregularities in police arrest procedures in the area” but would not physically interfere with police work. Citizen patrols like AIM’s formed across the nation during the late 1960s and 1970s. They included the Black Panther Party of Self Defense in California and the less well-known Soul Patrol in North Minneapolis.

 

AIM would soon expand its activities as a national organization representing the interests of Native Americans—and sometimes being forced to intervene in inter-tribal conflict, as what occurred in 1973, when AIM decided to back Gladys Bissonette of the Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization and her fight against Pine Ridge Reservation tribal president Richard Wilson, who with the help of white vigilantes and federal agents was attempting to extinguish the influence of the more traditional Lakota element, which was unhappy with Wilson’s failure to force federal government aid in improving conditions on the reservation. At Wounded Knee—the site of the infamous massacre in 1890—200 members of AIM led by Russell Means and Dennis Banks occupied it for over two months amidst sporadic exchanges of gunfire with federal agents that would kill two Natives. AIM agreed to evacuate on the “promise” that their grievances would be given a hearing. Actor Marlon Brando would famously refuse his Oscar for The Godfather, citing events at Wounded Knee and continuing discrimination against Native Americans.

Unfortunately, things only got worse in 1974, when Wilson, fresh off a contested reelection, sent out his goons to kill as many as 60 of his opponents in mostly staged conflicts over the next three years, again with the assistance of federal agents. In June, 1975 two federal agents, allegedly working on a tip concerning the robbing of two ranch hands on the reservation, followed a vehicle with the alleged suspects, and eventually gunfire was exchanged, and both agents were killed. The three men indicted for the killings all happened to be AIM members, including Leonard Peltier, who would eventually be the only person found guilty in the case and is currently still in prison serving consecutive life terms. The questions in the case arise from the fact that it is highly unlikely that the AIM members were involved in the petty robbery, but that they were being targeted by the agents because of their presence was viewed as a threat. 

AIM is still apparently active in Minneapolis, and in recent weeks for a different reason—members feel they need to protect their own communities and businesses from roving protestors by once more setting up patrols. According to one local leader, AIM agreed to requests “to provide security” and “start the AIM patrol again.” Except that this time it ironically is not in support of violation confrontation and destruction, but to prevent it.