Is Oklahoma OK?

From Only Murders in the Building

• "When people ask me the sort of broad question, what's wrong with with education in Oklahoma? We managed to languish. around fiftieth, sometimes up to forty seven, forty eighth in the nation in almost all indicators." - Chris Brewster on iHeart. 

• "Effective immediately, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support....Immediate and strict compliance is expected." Ryan Walters, Oklahoma state superintendent of Education.

I recently visited the state of Oklahoma this year, and have recently been wondering how the state came to be dominated so completely by right-wing politics. In 2024, every single county in the state voted Republican for president, and all statewide offices were held by Republicans. There are no moderates to speak of, and little debate in the Oklahoma legislature, dominated by lopsided margins by one party for two decades now.

I would have thought the state would be more of a purple state- moderate on economic issues and conservative on social issues. Up until the 1990s, Democrats routinely won statewide, even dominating the state for some decades. But ever since, it has swung hard to the right, and its public school ratings have dropped into the bottom 10% of all states.

Given its history and racial background, I would have expected something different. Oklahoma history is dotted with episodes that call into question much of American History and I would have thought made the state more diverse.

One of the most recent and powerful events was the tragic Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 that scarred the state's biggest city with a somber reminder of the bomb blast of the federal building that killed 168 people. Timothy McVeigh, who was later convicted for parking a vehicle loaded with bomb material, was a right-wing anti-government terrorist. That fact seems to have failed to curb much of the right-wing anger of the 21st century in Oklahoma.

OKC memorial- 168 empty chairs

While in Tulsa, I visited the area known as Black Wall Street where a notorious riot broke out in 1921 killing dozens and burning a prosperous African-American section of the city down after one man was accused of inappropriate behavior with a young woman. The museum there goes into great detail about what the area was like before, during, and after the riot, and its reemergence into the history books during the last decade has brought a new reckoning. But not in Oklahoma.

Perhaps the most conflicting part of Oklahoma history has to deal with Native Americans. While white settlers routinely kicked them out of ancestral lands, large swaths of land were set up in Oklahoma for the tribes to settle in. Oklahoma, especially the Eastern half, was set aside for tribes like the Osage, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and more. Since Oklahoma became a state in 1907, those tribes have nominal control over their lands, but much of it has been sold to white settlers and corporations, to the point where Native Americans are a minority even in their own lands.

I visited Pawhuska, in Osage County, where much of the Osage Nation traditions still hold. This town became famous when the movie Killers of the Flower Moon was shot there in the 2020's. It told a true story of how the Osage came into significant oil money from their lands and how greedy white men connived to marry into Osage families, murder the women, and inherit their oil stakes.

We know much about the way that Indigenous peoples were treated when white settlers moved Westward, but few of us have truly reconciled with it, or with the stain of slavery. Oklahoma still hasn't, but I was kind of hoping it would. given its proximity to it all.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Oklahoma is one of the more racially diverse states in the nation, with the highest concentration of Native Americans outside of Alaska. But white churches, big oil, and the Republican party are dominant here like they've been for decades. The mystery of the switch from Democratic dominance to Republican dominance can be seen all over the South and former slave states. Once civil rights legislation became a Democratic thing, politics became strictly racial, in Oklahoma, Alabama, Texas, Florida, and more.

Perhaps some day politics will cease to be a racial litmus test, but that will probably not happen in my lifetime. Until then, the schools will continue to suffer and use Christian propaganda to replace quality education. Tim McVeigh wanted to take down government, as do his ideological brethren. Oklahoma is not okay. By ignoring racial history, climate change and fossil fuels, and the need for educating the next generation to face new challenges, they are clinging to the past and wasting time and people.

Oklahoma is a lovely place to visit with an interesting history, though I doubt folks on either coast will bother to visit. There is beauty to be found everywhere, even on the dusty prairies.