Las Vegas Is Only the Deadliest Shooting in US History Because They Don’t Count Black Lives

News reporters and anchors have repeatedly referred to the recent tragedy in Las Vegas as the “worst mass shooting in U.S. history.” Like all things that are constantly repeated, the proclamation has become fact.... [But there] are countless incidents in which black and brown people were killed in incidents far worse than what happened in Vegas. Here are some of them:

The Bombing of Black Wall Street

On June 1, 1921, white rioters looted and burned the black area of Tulsa, Okla., known as Black Wall Street. Angry at the economic success of blacks in the area (the area became known as “Black Wall Street” because of the number of successful businesses and wealthy black inhabitants), white Tulsans accused a black man of raping a girl and attacked the area.

While white citizens used dynamite and planes to bomb the city, leaving more than 8,000 people homeless, eyewitness accounts charge that the vast majority of the people killed (estimates range from 80 to 300) died because the city’s law-enforcement officers deputized every able-bodied white man and handed out weapons from the city’s armory.