Bullet-Pocked History: When Erasure Isn't Enough for Mainstream Media
The Associated Press dutifully reports on a vandalized historical marker for Mary Turner, lynched while pregnant in 1918, now showcased in Atlanta. The article notes the marker was 'repeatedly vandalized' and 'pocked with bullet holes.' What it glosses over, however, is the systemic, ongoing effort to sanitize history, not just by anonymous bigots but by those who control the narrative. The
explicit violence against a physical marker is only the most visible symptom of a broader whitewashing, where the very institutions reporting on such events often sidestep the structural issues they represent. While bullet holes are condemned, the bullet points of historical context regarding the enduring racial violence and oppression (and its modern manifestations in policing, housing,
healthcare, etc.) rarely make it into the mainstream's headline. It's almost as if some histories are okay to memorialize as long as they stay safely in the past, without uncomfortable implications for current power structures.