We’ve always just been trying to mind our own business, feed our families, help our communities and make a way out of no way, and then THEY come out of the woodwork with foolishness like these disgusting trading cards.
Coon Cards were HUGE at the turn of the twentieth century. They featured racist caricatures of our people eating watermelon and wearing minstrel-era theatrical-style clothing.
The “Joker” was in blackface with bugged-out eyes and an afro. The words “As black as the ACE of spades” was written on the card.
They didn’t just trade these cards in the US. A large manufacturer of Coon Cards, Sutherland’s, was an Australian company–a reminder that anti-Blackness is global.
White supremacy is still trying us. These racist games manifest in tangibly harmful ways, like within the housing, education, and criminal legal systems. But with the resources and knowledge we’re building, we can outsmart their systems every time.
The joke is and has always been on them!
Our focus must be on strategizing and creating what we need to support our communities and determine our liberated futures so that we never have to play their games again.