A Book Review of "Riot and Remembrance"

Book: Riot and Remembrance:The Tulsa Race War and Its Legacy
Author: James Hirsch
The book "Riot and Remembrance" is a poignant reminder for us to be vigilant for the truth.
The book narrates the story of the race riot that happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1912. It also analyzes the cause and the great divide between whites and colored people.
The idea that forgiveness without reparation is unacceptable was also advanced by the book. Reparation is warranted since the government of Oklahoma was guilty because they helped the white mobs to annhilate the whole black town. There are even pictures where blacks are carted out to concentration camps by national guards.
It also talks about the heroic acts of some black individuals who stood up for their rights regardless of consequences. For the first time in history black Americans were united and dauntless in asserting and protecting their rights.
The author, James Hirsch, was successful in bringing to the open the horrid past that the government and white people of Tulsa, Oklahoma tried to hide and forget.
Good white Americans were guilty too because they allowed others to do horrendous acts to the black community of Tulsa.
Should America try to forget the past and move on? They cannot fully disregard the past without exorcising the ghost of injustice and bigotry. They must accept that they committed horrible acts to different peoples at different times.
As I read the book I can't help but to conclude that injustice will only triumph if weak people allow powers-that-be to control and subjugate them.
The question that remains then is: Is this kind of racism still happening today? The anwer is a resounding YES! It is as real as the oxygen we breathe. Just look around us: It may happen in its subtlest form but it is as real as it was before.

Why Is America Blessed?

I've been pondering if I should title this entry, "Does America Have The Moral Ascendency To Be the World's Police Dog?"
I am reading a book about Tulsa riot where the white mobs attacked the town of Greenwood. Greenwood's inhabitants are black. It occurred in early 1900s.
The book gave a good view of what's happening in that era. The Ku Klux Klan. The lynchings of blacks by whites simply because blacks were accussed of assaulting (rape during that time are called assault) white girls. The discrimination against Jews, immigrants, catholics and colored people. I was even aghast because according to the book the White Americans, during that time, perceived blacks as sexual maniacs (which I am sure is totally wrong) who when they see white girls will do everything to lay on them.
I can't help but recall what Americans did in my own country. The Americans used to have military bases. (Which I feel were the bases of our insecurities) Some American GIs shoot scavengers in the dump simply because they mistook filipino scavengers as wild pigs. (This was immortalized in the film "Minsan May Isang Gamo-Gamo" starring Nora Aunor.
I can't help but recall what the Americans did to American Indians when they displaced them.
I can't help but recall what the Americans did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed thousands of innocent civilians all in the name of democracy.
I can't help but recall the tv footage that I saw on tv when white policemen were beating black suspect.
I can't help but recall what happened in Guantanamo Bay when American soldiers humiliated Iraqi POWs. They stripped Iraqi POWs and asked them to do sexual acts.
Knowing all these, is it hard to speculate what's happening in Iraq now?
I am asking God, "Are you turning your eyes away from the evil which Americans are doing? I know vengeance is not ours but why are you blessing the perpetrators of evil?"
With this I can't help but to be cynical