Opinion: Modern Lynchings in the United States

These United States of America have long been portrayed as the world’s great bastion of freedom and prosperity, a beacon of democracy and furthermore, equality, among the desolate and inhospitable lands of global politics. Yet, that idolatry is compromised by a past and present mired inhate, racial violence, and disparity. Ironclad, the machine chugs on, the gears of its oppressive policies lubricated by the cold sweat of an archaic government’s lies. Liberty and justice for all.

Our nation’s failure to live up to that promise of equality is as evident today as it ever was. The twin examples of the Kyle Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Arbery cases display this, though the violence took place under vastly differing contexts. Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teenager, opened fire upon three white men—two of whom he killed—with an AR-15 style rifle. At the time of the incident, Rittenhouse did not have the legal right to be carrying his weapon. Despite this, he managed to evade prosecution for possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, per Boston Globe analysis, due to a legal technicality which his attorneys cited. Kyle Rittenhouse’s killings took place in the midst of a demonstration protesting the murder of Jacob Blake.

Ahmaud Arbery was a Black man who was jogging, unarmed, in a Georgia neighborhood when three white men, Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and neighbor William "Roddie'' Bryan saw Arbery and allegedly identified him as sharing a likeness to a suspect in a series of recent break-ins. According to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), there were no reports of local break-ins filed in the time leading up to the incident. Video footage of the incident pictures the three men chasing Arbery in a truck, before the younger McMichael exits the vehicle and confronts Arbery. In the seconds following, the camera pans away from the two, during which time two gunshots can be heard, before framing back to the two men as a third shot sounds. Travis McMichael fired upon Arbery thrice, killing the young man.

In order to understand this violence which has seemingly become so rampant, we must understand that these examples of discriminatory violence are not outliers in the hellish data pool of US gun violence. Rather, they are consistent and traceable events in an ongoing pattern of racism and domestic terrorism that has been both normalized and incentivized by intentional acts of legal perversion.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights organization that played a critical role in the movement to end lynchings in the twentieth century, defines a lynching as the public murder of a person who has yet to recieve any sort of due process through the law. Historically, lynchings have often involved civilian mobs, though police officers have participated as well, with ‘justice’ as their alibi. Lynchings usually involved some manner of criminal allegation which were nearly always baseless. These allegations advanced racial stereotypes and justified continued discrimination and violence. After these allegations were made, a mob would detain and brutalize their target, using methods that I cannot in good conscience describe here. The torment ended when the mob either tired and killed their victim, or when their cruelty and fervor did.

My intention in writing this article is not to garner your sympathy, but rather to elicit your anger. There was a time and place in which empathy was a step forward in racial progress, but that time has now passed. Now is the time to act, as our current inaction will only perpetuate further incidents.

Nevertheless, I’m done empathizing alone. I’m angry, and ready to act. And I want you to be angry, too. I want you to be angry that for a century your government has failed spectacularly and repeatedly to pass a formal antilynching bill. You are living in a country in which no law specifically states that the act of publically torturing and murdering a person is a hate crime. That should anger you.

Be angry because the three men who lynched Ahmaud Arbery in 2020 were barely brought to justice. Unless the cell phone video of the three men chasing Arbery down and shooting him had not been leaked to the press, no trial would have been held. Be angry that last year, then-president Donald Trump called the people who he swore to serve and protect, so help him God, thugs. Be angry that same president threatened to retaliate against protestors with acts of violence. He feared that the power of US citizens who were outraged over the lynching of George Floyd by law enforcement was greater than his own power. Be angry, because anger fuels action, and I want you to act.

There is so much to be done in the world of lynchings and racially motivated violence: revisions to gun laws, counseling and mental health outreach, police reform, getting state and federal legislature comfortable with indicting and prosecuting domestic terrorists for hate crimes. All this is hardly a drop in the bucket. But, supporting the current working version of the proposed antilynching bill is a great way to start. The H.R.55 - Emmett Till Antilynching Act is the most recent proposed piece of legislation working to finally and officially ratify the specific illegality of lynching. H.R.55 is sponsored by Democrat Bobby L. Rush, Representative for Illinois’ first district. You can show your support for this bill by advocating online or in-person for its ratification or by contacting your Representative and asking them if they plan to support the bill. If this activist engagement is inspiring to you, consider reaching out to Lee Collins, Laura Stamas, or myself for information on joining Four Rivers’ Students For Racial and Social Justice club (S4RSJ). You can reach us at lcollins@fourriverscharter.org, lstamas@fourriverscharter.org, and lblack@fourriverscharter.org respectively. In the meantime, stay angry because complaisance will never inspire change.

A big thank you to Joanna Morse whose conversation with me inspired this article but whose opinions may not be reflected in the contents of this article.