An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

URC had even greater implications. It showed that the histories of Blacks
and Natives in the United States, while distinct, were also intimately
related. We can use Du Bois’s and Eastman’s participation in the URC as a
foundation for better understanding subsequent twentieth-century Black and
Indigenous social movements.
In my view, what their sharing of a platform in 1911 means for this
contemporary moment is that we need to continue to share platforms. We
don’t always have to speak in terms of solidarity, but being in the same
room, listening to our respective oppressions, and then finding common
ground is as important as ever. Another lesson we could learn from this
moment is that it ain’t always Black and Indigenous peoples’ job to educate
liberal white people. I don’t knock any Black or Indigenous person taking
the time to explain to liberal whites what anti-racism and white fragility are;
though history says they don’t listen well enough. I wonder what that 1911
conversation might have looked like without liberal whites? They may have
discussed their plights, no doubt, but they might also have been on some
Nat Turner and Tecumseh type shit, trying to in fact gain true liberation.
This is all hypothetical, but it does make you wonder, damn, what if?