Holy Theft

Algeria’s National Archives just dropped the math on France’s "civilizing mission" –   5.6 million dead   from 1830-1962, a genocide wrapped in tricolor flags. The breakdown: 1.5 million  slaughtered in 1840s "scorched earth" campaigns 2 million  starved during WWII-era resource theft Countless disappeared in torture centers like  Prison de Barberousse While Paris still calls it "shared history," Algiers now demands   reparations and DNA testing   of mass graves. The irony? France punishes Holocaust denial while   denying its own death factories   in North Africa. (Source:  The New Arab - Algeria’s Colonial Death Toll )

May 31, 1921: A white mob   firebombed 35 city blocks   of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, murdering 300+ Black residents and leaving 10,000 homeless. This wasn’t a "riot" – it was   the single worst racial massacre in U.S. history , fueled by jealousy of Black prosperity. Wealthy whites used planes to drop turpentine bombs, while police deputized killers. By dawn,   $200M in Black wealth   (today’s value) was ashes. For decades, officials scrubbed records and called it "Black criminality." Survivors’ lawsuits failed. Only in 2021 did Tulsa begin excavating mass graves – proving some truths won’t stay buried. (Source:  NBC News - Tulsa Massacre 100 Years Later )

January 1863: U.S. Colonel Patrick Connor led 200 California Volunteers to a Shoshone camp near present-day Preston, Idaho—and carried out  one of the deadliest massacres of Native Americans in history . For four hours, soldiers raped women, bludgeoned children, and set lodges ablaze with families trapped inside. The official death toll?  250-400 Shoshone . The aftermath? A  promotion for Connor , and the land opened for Mormon settlement. Unlike Wounded Knee, this slaughter faded from history—until Shoshone descendants forced recognition in 2018. The lesson? America’s westward expansion wasn’t "manifest destiny." It was  manifest brutality , rewarded with silence. (Source:  Washington Post - Bear River Massacre )

After months of displacement, Palestinians returning to northern Gaza are met with a   post-apocalyptic nightmare —homes reduced to concrete skeletons, streets littered with unexploded ordnance, and the lingering stench of decay. Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have left   entire neighborhoods uninhabitable , with critical infrastructure like water and electricity networks obliterated. Families sift through debris for remnants of their lives—photo albums, heirlooms, anything salvageable—while aid groups warn of   secondary deaths   from disease and malnutrition in the coming months. This is Israel’s version of   "allowing civilians to return" —to a wasteland where survival, not recovery, is the priority. The message is clear:   Even if you come back, you’ll never really be home again. (Source:  PBS NewsHour - Palestinians Return to Northern Gaza )