Lynchings

The lynchings of the South were monstrous acts of subjective and objective violence. "Every groan from the Bead, every contortion of his body was cheered by the thickly packed crowd of 10,000 persons" is a sentence in Ida B. Wells's The Red Record which demonstrates the subjectivity of the lynchings: thousands of pain seeking witnesses watching an African-American man die before their very eyes. The pictures of white people huddling around a hung or burning black person's corpse depict subjectivity as well. The popularity of the lynchings is something I specifically I can not pinpoint. Perhaps, they are popular because the South is a region dominated by white supremists who use them to bolster white pride. The "punishment" put on by these lynchings is in connection to power. If, white people have the power to inflict pain whenever they want, then black people should always beware. The objectivity of the lynchings lies behind the mentality of the Caucasians who initiate this ritual. The mentality is jurisprudence does not exist for African-Americans. The law of the South is in the hands of ordinary white southerners. There is no legal protection for black people. This intends to strike fear in their very hearts. In the 19th century United States, the racial identity of white people is that they are the prey while black people are the hunters. Apparently, it is the other way around. I can not believe this kind of reasoning persists throughout the South for so many years. This is truly a sad period in U.S. history.