Many of us are filled with horror, shock, and outrage at the homophobic mass shooting in Orlanda targeting LGBT partiers and allies at the Pulse nightclub. At the same time, many U.S. media outlets, including the New York Times and NPR, are repeatedly saying it’s the worst mass shooting in U.S. History. This is simply not true. We shouldn’t ignore other atrocities in U.S. History when condemning atrocities of the present.
Even if one excludes massacres by the US Army (Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, etc.), the 1853 Yontoket massacre of 400 Yolowa indians might be the worst mass shooting in U.S. history that I know of (see obrag.org/...).
In addition, what is usually called the Tulsa "race riot," of 1921, white racists, while burning down and holding prisoner members of the the African-American community, killed approximately 300 black citizens (see tulsahistory.org/...). There are probably other examples, but these are two that I’m aware of.
Homophobia both is a form of violence and foments violence. Racism is both a form of violence and foments violence. Let’s not ignore either of these aspects of our history. Misogyny, islamophobia, anti-semitism, and all these forms of bigotry all pollute our cultural environments, and are used to goad and incite violence. It is up to all of us to ally for ourselves and with each other to filter out all bigotry (the link takes you to a handout I use in anti-oppression trainings for middle and high school students), and to ally against all forms of bigotry, oppression, and violence.