Our nation has erupted in days-long protest, sparked by the murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers. Cities across the U.S., and even across the world have taken to the streets to make their voices heard. Some of the most violent clashes between protestors and police have happened in Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Atlanta where we saw two college students being pulled from their vehicle and attacked by police. What also can’t be ignored is the systematic lockdowns of cities where mayors along with local law enforcement have declared citywide curfews, oftentimes making these announcements within minutes of said curfews expiring. Chicago has even taken to shutting off their CTA public transportation, which left many essential workers and protestors stranded on the evening of May 31, 2020. Speaking of, May 31st is the anniversary of the bombing of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma which took place in 1921. As we commemorate the 99 year anniversary of the bombing of Black Wall Street where a town of successful Black families and businesses were not only terrorized but ultimately destroyed, Black people in America must dissect and investigate the other foot on their collective necks - the collusion of our government, politicians, and police organizations with immigrant populations enabling them establish wealth in the same way as our country’s forefathers - on the backs of Black people.
The south has an overt and often open racist history that has been on display for centuries, along with the legacy of slavery. The North, however, in places like Boston, New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and many other cities is where the mob and mafia organized crime ran rampant and were also integral in institutionalizing racism against Black Americans. These same machines created unions that were politically connected to the Democratic party who aided and abetted in the financial rape of the African American community by denying them union jobs, adequate housing and worked with the police unions to keep Blacks ‘in line’. Jimmy Hoffa’s Teamsters routinely provided interest free loans to the Mafia. The movie Harlem Nights depicts much of how this was orchestrated, including purposely inundating Black neighborhoods with illegal activities such as prostitution and gambling, typically for period of about 5 years or so before having massive raids to take down Black crime bosses, only then to evict the residents so that White immigrant populations could come in and buy cheap real estate that would almost always skyrocket in value. These same immigrants came to despise and discriminate against the very African Americans who made it possible for them to come to this country.
It’s kind of disheartening to see the lengths that Ray, Quick, and their circle have to go because a White criminal, who has a dirty detective on his side, wants a piece of their pie.
The Immigration Act of 1965 was a direct result of the Civil Rights movement organized and executed by Black / African Americans - “Over the next four decades, the policies put into effect in 1965 would greatly change the demographic makeup of the American population, as immigrants entering the United States under the new legislation came increasingly from countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as opposed to Europe.” This facilitated the acceptance of many immigrants of color to the United States. Once on these shores, parents of immigrant children often discouraged their children fraternizing, emulating or dating African Americans.
In addition, almost all of these immigrant groups profited from the same types of organized crime that had benefited their white immigrant predecessors such as the Irish, Italians, Russians and many more of European origin. Money laundering, bootlegging, prostitution and many other illegal activities directly funded many of what are now established businesses, suburban enclaves full of homes and lifestyles that their descendants enjoy. The origins of the Mob in America can be traced to the urban ghettos of the late 19th century where Irish, Italian and Eastern European Jewish immigrants struggled to survive amid poverty, overcrowding and discrimination. These immigrants could get only the most dangerous and low-paying jobs (source: themobmuseum.org). The movie, Gangs of New York depicts much of this history, “The Irish Bowery Boys soon formed in a nearby area known as the Bowery. Battles between the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits (claiming more than 1,000 members each) were legendary, each of which was supported by smaller gangs they had spawned...Shrewd politicians immediately recognized the potential asset that the street gangs might represent. In the early 1830’s, several politicians (ward and district leaders) bought grocery stores in Five Points and the saloons and dance halls in the Bowery, the gathering places for the gangs. In return for their assured protection of the gangs’ meeting places, and financial rewards offered to the gangs for their loyalty, gang leaders returned the favor by taking care of jobs like blackjacking political opponents and scaring unsupporting voters away from the polls” (source: sagepub.com).
Philadelphia and Boston could also lay claim to having substantial street gangs before the Civil War; [sic] Philadelphia’s Public Ledger identified nearly 50 Philadelphia gangs between 1840 and 1870. These gangs persisted; a New York Tribune reporter described the northern suburbs of Philly in 1948 and 1949 as swarming with gangs.
“If any nationality has been linked to organized crime in the United States over the years, it would have to be Italian-Americans, at least in popular perception...countless books, movies and TV shows, from The Godfather right up to the Sopranos, the image of the Mafioso has become synonymous with the face of gangsters in America.” However, the Irish Mob began as penniless immigrants in the mid-19th century battled their way to power and established the first crime syndicate in America, which lasted for at least 150 years (source: toledoblade.com). The first gang leader from the streets to achieve prominence was John Old Smoke Morrisey, who ran gambling joints, saloons, and brothels in New York City, ultimately aligning himself with Tammany Hall, the city’s corrupt Democratic political machine. Of course the best known Irish (democratic) family is the Kennedy clan. Boston native Joseph P. Kennedy, father of JFK and Robert Kennedy was a bootlegger during Prohibition who supplied liquor to a rogue gallery of crime bosses, including Al Capone. During his son’s presidential campaign, Joe reached out to mobsters for help and Sam Giancana, then the Mafia boss of Chicago, delivered the state of Illinois for JFK, helping provide his winning margin in the 1960 election. Decades later, the Russian mob, Colombians and Latin Americans became the face of organized crime in America.
While the Italian mafia was the largest and most powerful, other ethnic groups also had organized crime rings. On the west coast, especially there are Asian American gangs as well. In Koreatown in L.A. for example, the original gangs first came from Korea, and flourished by being involved in illegal activities such as drug dealing, organized crime, money laundering and prostitution. Since the liberalization of the immigration laws of 1965, Chinatowns in the U.S. have experienced a consistent increase in their crime rates.
You will often hear the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren angrily tweet or disclaim aloud that their parents came to America AFTER slavery and that they “worked hard” to achieve financial and business success, therefore the idea of reparations is absurd and Black folks in America should follow suit and “work hard” as well. What’s so interesting is that all of this history of the corruption among immigrant organized crime and their collusion with politicians, government and law enforcement is not only documented but glorified in history, film and ironically rap music. Most recently one only has to look to last year’s The Irishman starring Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesce. The mob museum is literally an entire museum celebrating how these groups came to America, created a crime syndicate and created generational wealth, all while local politicians and police chiefs winked, shook hands, quietly collected their cut on their way to vacation in Miami with their families. These are the same cops with their foot on the necks of George Floyd, the same system that gave Jacob the Jeweler 2.5 years and a $50,000 fine while the BMF crime family serves 30+ years in prison. Who is really being protected and served?
We encourage all of you, especially those that live in major cities across the U.S. to do your own research of the history of organized crime and cross reference wealth and ownership of land and businesses in those same cities. It is only then that you will truly connect the dots, especially as you fully realize how those actions contribute to denial of home loans, redlining, poorly performing school districts etc. It was just prior to the murder of George Floyd gripping the nation that we were largely discussing the upcoming presidential election, and an ornery white woman in Central Park. The south’s history of slavery, terrorism at the hands of the KKK and segregation are well documented, but the largely Democratic stronghold of the North has produced structural racism that is just as sinister if not worse. In the words of Joe Biden, “You Ain’t Black” if you don’t comprehend the second slavery created by the North which has largely contributed the conditions we now find ourselves in.
Other sources: csun.edu, repository.upenn.edu, pbs.org, wikipedia
