Was Tulsa Race Massacre an act of retaining socioeconomic dominance for the white mob and suppression of social mobility for the black community?
Abstract
In this paper, I hope to analyze and conclude if the Tulsa Race Massacre was an act to retain socioeconomic dominance for the white mob and suppression of social mobility for the black community. I look forward to tackling this question in a complicated strategic form of game theory with the analysis of if it was always in the incentive for the white mob to attack the black community of Greenwood, Tulsa in terms of creating a socioeconomic dominance and disparity and if the event could have been avoidable.
Introduction
Imagine a community with a flourishing economic and social standard built from the ground with immense potentials leading towards a hopeful generation growth during the 20th century. Sound more like Los Angeles, New York City, or Chicago, right? But it wasn’t one of those metropolitan cities but Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood district, founded and developed by the black community was considered the wealthiest black community in the nation. Greenwood acted as an antidote to the racial oppression of the black people during the time. Black entrepreneurs accompanied together to build an economic and social opportunity of social mobility for its black residents-something they were not allowed to throughout the United States due to its racially oppressive ties. Segregation laws during the period were socially engineered to prevent black communities from shopping in white neighborhoods. Over 10,000 residents called the Greenwood district their homes or their path of earning. It was a place where black people were able to walk into a clothing store to try an outfit or enjoy a meal at a restaurant without being stuck down of service or entrance because of the color of their skin or heritage background. The community’s business structure held multiple grocery stores, hotels, nightclubs, billiard halls, theaters, doctors’ offices, churches and was so vibrant that it achieved the name of America’s Black Wall Street. But unfortunately, this progressive era for the black community of Tulsa was diminished and suppressed with a two-day racial massacre.
It all began on May 30th, 1921, when a black 19-year-old teenager, Dick Rowland, a young shoe-shiner tripped over the edge getting into the elevator of Drexel building in downtown Tulsa and grabbed onto the arm of a white 17-year-old teenager, Sarah Page, an elevator operator. Mr. Rowland was arrested the next morning on counts of sexual assault and attempt to rape and jailed in the Tulsa County Courthouse. This event gave rise to the formation of the White mob who marched the streets of Greenwood, Tulsa with the thought of lynching the black community-looting and destroying businesses and homes, burning out properties, and killing any black person who came their way. On May 31st and June 1st, 1921, mobs of White residents attacked Black residents of Greenwood District and destroyed homes and businesses, killing countless Black people in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Some members of the white mob were deputized and given weapons by the city officials for the event. Over 300 people were killed, and 1,000 homes and businesses were set on fire, leaving 8,000 to 10,000 black people homeless. Greenwood, where the Black Community was starting to believe in the American Dream, was dreadfully wiped out.
Analysis
AttackIn this analysis, I have constructed a 2x2 strategic game to evaluate if the Tulsa Race Massacre was in the best interest of the White mob and if the event could have been avoided by the black community. The game is as follows:
4 = best; 3 = next best; 2 = next worst; 1 = worst
Nash equilibrium underscored
Nonmyopic equilibria (NMEs) circled
Note that White Mob has two strategies, Attack and Not Attack, and Black Community also has two strategies, Stay and Flee.
In the game above, the Nash equilibrium is at Attack, Stay (2,3) i.e at that state of the game, both White Mob and the Black Community would not have the incentive to move, and it is their simultaneous best response strategy. Taking a deeper look, let us analyze each simultaneous pair-wise strategy choice to understand what those states of strategies would mean. Considering each pair of strategies starting from the upper-left state and moving in a clockwise direction:
1. White Mob’s incentive to attack and Black Community’s incentive to stay: (2,3). In this state, it is White Mob’s next- worst outcome and Black’s Community’s next-best outcome. It is because though it may be White’s Mob’s best incentive to attack knowing they have the upper hand in terms of arms supplied by the local government, city’s official’s support via airstrike and decriminalization, and the numbers. However, the Black community staying would mean resistance against White Mob’s attack or their potential goal of demolishing the flourishing Black community’s economic growth and perhaps a risk of narrowing the socioeconomic disparities between the two parties.
2. White Mob attacking, Black Community fleeing: (3,2). In this state, the payoffs for the sides are reversed from state 1-it is the White mob’s next best outcome and the Black community’s next worth outcome. It is because it would be White mob’s best incentive to attack having the upper hand of power stated in 1., Black community fleeing would mean no resistance against the attack or their potential goal of demolishing the flourishing Black community’s economic growth and perhaps a risk of narrowing the socioeconomic disparities between the two parties.
3. White Mob not attacking, Black community fleeing: (4,1). The best outcome for the White mob and the worst outcome for the Black community. This is a state of total conflict because, in this state, the White mob receives its highest utility goal by achieving demolition of the Black community’s economy without having to pursue an attack. Whereas it is the worst outcome for the Black community because they lose out on everything they had worked for and built for the social mobility of themselves or the community.
4. White Mob’s incentive to not attack; Black community’s incentive to stay: (1,4). In this state, the payoffs for the sides are reversed from state 3-it is the White mob’s worst outcome and Black community’s best outcome. This is once again a state of total conflict because in this state the Black community receives its highest utility goal by not being under attack and staying would mean continual growth of the economy and therefore narrowing the socioeconomic disparity between the two parties. Whereas, it is the worst outcome for the White mob because the Black community’s economy will continue to grow and present a risk of their socioeconomic dominance.
This analysis remains a theory but let’s take a further look into the game to analyze if it is in the incentive for the White Mob to attack the Black community and if the event could have been avoidable by manipulating the variables. I will try to achieve this outcome using Backward induction in this game, and it is as follows:
Using backward induction, we can conclude that the massacre was bound to happen, and it would not have been avoidable. Referencing the backward induction tables above, we can see at the state of (1,4) or Non-Attack, Stay- the White mob has the incentive to move from that state to Attack, Stay (2,3). This shows an incentive of the White mob for choosing to attack over not attacking. We can also see that at the state of Not Attack, Fleeing (4,1), and Attack, Fleeing (3,2)-the Black community would always have the incentive to stay and flourish their blooming economy for a chance at social mobility. Fleeing would not be an option, and in both states, the Black community would have the incentive to choose to stay over to flee.
Conclusion
In this paper, I proposed to analyze if the Tulsa race massacre was an act of retaining socioeconomic dominance for the white mob and suppression of social mobility for the black community, and after strategically analyzing the question using the concept of strategic 2x2 game theory and backward induction, I have concluded that the massacre was inevitable given the fact that it was always in the incentive for White Mob to attack the Black community of Greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. From the very same fact we can also conclude that there is a possibility that the attack could have been an act of retaining socioeconomic dominance for the white mob and suppression of social mobility for the black community.
Bibliography
Brams, Steven, and Steven John Brams. Theory of Moves. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Sullivan, Missy. “‘Black Wall Street’ Before, During and After the Tulsa Race Massacre: PHOTOS.” HISTORY, 31 Aug. 2021, www.history.com/news/tulsa-massacre-black-wall-street-before-and-after-photos.
Parshina-Kottas, Yuliya, et al. “What the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Destroyed.” The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2021, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/05/24/us/tulsa-race-massacre.html.
Li, Yun. “Black Wall Street Was Shattered 100 Years Ago. How the Tulsa Race Massacre Was Covered up and Unearthed.” CNBC, 1 June 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/05/31/black-wall-street-was-shattered-100-years-ago-how-tulsa-race-massacre-was-covered-up.html.
