George Washington Carver, his parents slaves, was abducted along with his mother and sister by slave raiders and sold off. A family friend(?) actually tracked him down but failed to locate the others. Raised in Kansas, he studied the surrounding plants extensively by hand and would go on to earn a full scholarship only to be denied entry later upon arriving at the college, due to his skin color.
In 1948, Nat King Cole bought a house in the all-white Hancock Park development, central LA. His neighbors, some of them reported to have been members of the KKK, sued to block the purchase and, when those efforts failed, eventually burned a cross and racial slurs on his front lawn. Their family dog also died around the same time, from poisoning.
R.L. Burnside
https://www.westword.com/music/still-burning-5059806
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APRIL 22, 1999 The harshness of this schedule was exacerbated only by the bigotry that was part and parcel of living in the Mississippi Delta. "Yeah, racism was just an everyday thing," notes Burnside, who currently resides near the Mississippi community of Holly Springs.
Since the children of plantation workers were required to begin toiling alongside their parents by the time they were eight or nine, Burnside didn't get much traditional schooling, but his education in the blues was second to none.
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Of course there are other historical, non-black examples as well. Italian and Irish immigrants suffered mistreatment not so long ago in America's past and this is true, even now, among the Appalachians and American Indians. But in mentioning them, other more specific examples come to mind which were subject to different forms of discrimination. Alan Turing, homosexual. Adhara Perez, autist.
As is often the case, most people are not exactly candidates for sainthood, but that is besides the point. It does not seem at all controversial to suggest that the human race stands to gain much, and lose nothing, by ridding itself of long-held prejudices. A person or group of people cannot conceivably take on all of the prejudice that exists in the world however, just as an epidemiologist or team of researchers cannot develop a cure-all for every disease known to man.
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Originally Posted by Lojik
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In todays political climate if there's a clear leader then it's easy to point to a figurehead and say "those are the policies this group supports." BLM doesn't really have this, except for when ultra conservaties will point to their "leaders" being trained marxists or something. The "movement" is difficult to criticize at the moment, because it's not really clear what policies they support. At the same time the organization will lack direction due to leadership.
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Fair point. While movements are not to be confused with mobs, mob mentality can take over in the absence of leadership. Still, it should come as no surprise that there would be no singular, immediately identifiable figure guiding the movement considering what happened to those who previously took the leadership role upon themselves. A tall tree attracts wind.