An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

psychological wage for being white, even though their actual wages did not
increase. Poor whites were accepted by the white elite simply for being
white and were given deference over Black people. Their whiteness allowed
them the opportunity to say, “Hey, at least I’m not Black.” During the 2020
protests in the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd,
President Donald Trump continued to stoke the fires of racial division,
arguing that the words “Black Lives Matter” are a symbol of hate. His
rhetoric created further division by tapping into a longer history of white
elites telling poor and working-class whites that they are losing out on jobs
because of the Latinx community coming into the country. Hamer pointed
out that the capitalist system of the South exploited Black workers, which
created different outcomes for Black and white workers under the Jim Crow
system.
Later in the speech, Hamer recounts the severe beating she experienced
in a jail in Mississippi, a horrific and vile event, after returning from a
voting educational workshop in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 9,
1963. She asks, “How can they say, ‘In ten years’ time, we will have forced
every Negro out of the state of Mississippi?’” Her response to this
challenge illustrates another aspect of her radicalism—that of staying put.
That is, she and other Black Mississippians were not going anywhere. This
was their home. “But I want these people to take a good look at
themselves,” she says, “and after they’ve sent the Chinese back to China,
the Jews back to Jerusalem, and give the Indians their land back, and they
take the Mayflower from which they came, the Negro will still be in
Mississippi.” Hamer here articulates a point of Black belonging that has
been a powerful form of resistance: the steadfastness of blackness. In spite
of the trauma of enslavement and white supremacy, Black people will
remain. However, she also articulates a point about Black futures on
Indigenous land. Although being sent back would be the outcome for the
other immigrant groups, this would not be the case for Native people or
Black people, who would stay put. Hamer understood that Mississippi and
the rest of the US was Indigenous land, and she envisioned a shared future
with Indigenous people.
These micro moments are important since they indicate a clear
understanding of the violent nature of land being stolen from Native people
and the importance of having solidarity with them. It is not clear if Hamer
knew people from the Choctaw Band of Mississippi, but it would not be