One of the largest murder-suicides in existence, known as the Jonestown Massacre, was an event rooted in racism. Reverend Jim Jones, a white man, convinced hundreds of members to take a lethal cocktail drink and went down in history as one of the most memorable cult leaders. The truth is, many people are unaware that most of the people murdered in the November 18, 1978 massacre were black. Now, a Tennessee man is showing eerie footage from the event and commenters have a lot to say about the abhorrent and apparent racism.
User @martinluthervandrossjr posted a TikTok video showing footage taken the day before the Jonestown massacre. He shared that the footage was taken “the day before the mass execution of 909 people.” In the video, you can see members clapping along to a singer on a stage. These include many adult individuals and children. From the video, you can clearly see that a lot of these individuals were African American living in Guyana. According to the poster, “They rehearsed this party the day before US congress and NBC news came over to check on them after multiple complaints about the cult.” At this point, Jim Jones’ horrific plans were already brewing. This makes the video even more alarming than usual.
Many individuals don’t know that approximately 50% of the people who died in the planned massacre were African American women. The church itself was devised of African Americans, who made up 75% of the congregation. These are details we often don’t hear when people talk about the massacre. It also makes it more sinister than ever before, knowing that Jim Jones was a white male.
As one commenter mentioned, “Most of the murdered people were Black. Jim Jones was quite intentional about who he captured with his rhetoric.” Another person explained, “They were murdered. So many of them wanted to leave. Passports were taken, they were slowly being starved. There was no internet, Jim was lying to them saying the US wanted to kill them and was going to lock them up if they came back. Even still some didn’t want to die so they were injected with the poison. Awful awful stuff.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard of white killers targeting black people. In the 80s and 90s, Jeffrey Dahmer was terrorizing the streets and murdered 15 people who were black, indigenous, Asian, and various other races. In the 90s, Chester Turner murdered at least 14 women, most of whom were black. As one commenter said of the Jonestown massacre, “My GMA said nothing good would have come about following a white man in the 70’s knowing his intentions were not good even if he was “promoting” unity between all.” It’s sad that people of color living in America have to have these fears and protect themselves so deeply.
