(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Oklahoma Values? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-27 The dysfunctional craziness in the United States Congress because of the Republican Party continues unabated even with the exit of George Santos. A former football coach blocked military promotions for more than a year. The Speaker of the House announced he turns to the Bible for legal guidance. The former Speaker is quitting a year before his term ends. House Republicans attacked Ivy League college presidents for not sufficiently denouncing antisemitism while embracing colleagues who openly parade around with avowed antisemites including Donald Trump. Some of the Republican craziness is outright bizarre. Markwayne Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter and current Republican Senator from Oklahoma said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Oklahomans "would be pretty upset" at him if he didn’t threaten to fight Teamsters union leader Sean O'Brien who was testifying at a Senate hearing. During the hearing, Mullin stood up to go after O’Brien but was stopped by 82-year-old committee chair Bernie Sanders. In the interview, Mullin defended his actions and claimed, “I'm supposed to represent Oklahoma values." I recently saw the movie Killers of the Flower Moon, so I thought it would be a good idea to examine the “Oklahoma values” Mullin claimed to be espousing. Killers of the Flower Moon is based on the book of the same name. The book and movie tell the story of the murder of Osage Indians by white Oklahomans between 1918 and 1931. The death toll may have been in the hundreds. The Osage were triply cursed. In the 1830s the federal government drove them off traditional tribal lands in modern day Kentucky to what was considered worthless lands in the Oklahoma Indian territory. The Osage were cursed again when oil was discovered on their Oklahoma reservation making the tribe incredibly wealthy for the time and then when the federal government passed a law requiring each member of the tribe to have a white guardian to control their money. The oil money brought white conmen and criminals into the Osage homeland and led to the suspicious murders. I’m not sure if the exploitation and murder of the Osage is what Mullin meant by Oklahoma values. Mullin might have been referring to the 1921 Tulsa Massacre when the white population went on a rampage and destroyed the African American community of Greenwood, known as the Black Wall Street, because so many of its residents were considered affluent. Homes and businesses were destroyed. The exact number of Black people murdered by the white mobs is unknown but was probably over 100. The massacre was then written out of history until recent decades. Racial violence and erasing it from memory may be other Oklahoma values Mullin was referring to. The Tulsa Massacre was not the first time African Americans were attacked in Oklahoma; it was only the worst incident. In the 1890s, white mobs ran African Americans out of Lexington, Blackwell, Ponca City, and Lincoln County in Oklahoma. Between 1907 and 1930, white mobs lynched African Americans in Henryetta, Okemah, Purcell, Chickasha, Eufaula, and Oklahoma City. When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, it adopted a series of racist laws to prevent African Americans, anybody with “one drop” of African American blood or any African ancestry, from voting. In 1910, Oklahoma amended its constitution to add a “Grandfather Clause,” you weren’t eligible to vote if your grandfather wasn’t eligible, and a literacy test, to disenfranchise African America men (women were still not able to vote). Oklahoma law also banned interracial marriage, established racially segregated schools, and required Jim Crow railroads. Oklahoma was the first state to require segregated public pay telephone booths. So, racism and opposition to democracy were also traditional Oklahoma values. Of course, Mullin may have been referring to more recent events. The Republican Party controls the governorship and both houses of the Oklahoma legislature where they have written some of the most backward laws in the country. Oklahoma laws bans teaching about slavery, race, and racism if it makes anyone uncomfortable, limits what can be taught about LGBTQ individuals and the battle for women’s rights and permits corporal punishment in schools. Oklahoma criminalized abortion in 1910 and after the United States Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, that law went back into effect. Some Oklahoma school districts are notorious for banned book campaigns. In Oklahoma, banned authors include alphabetically Maya Angelou, Frederick Douglass, William Golding, Laurie Halse, Lorraine Hansberry, S.E. Hinton, Zora Neale Hurston, Aldous Huxley, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison, Katherine Paterson, John Steinbeck, and Angie Thomas. All Oklahomans do not share Markwayne Mullin “values.” We can only hope he is voted out of office when he is up for reelection in 2026. 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