Quote:
Originally posted by MavenofDrec
Crimson Tide,
I am in no way trying to discredit your comment, or what your history professor taught you, but I seriously doubt that lynchings occured because of land or economics. But then again, there is so much convoluted rationality in the minds of the devils who commited these crimes that anything is possible. Even worse, these "people" believed that they were commiting these acts in the name of God.
|
Actually perception can be more powerful than reality, if we let it. It is easier to bring the whole fam. Ma, Pa and Lil' Billy to a public lynching if you have rationalized it in your mind. If lil' Suzie seems to be sicken at the sight of a man being hanged to death with his eyes open, you can quell her tears and nightmares with the belief that you may have saved her from being raped or even approached by this man. Bebe Moore Campbell's "Your Blues Ain't Like Mine" takes a look at this by reworking the Emmitt Till case through her characters, it was a good read.
Indeed, Black men could have been lynched for land, money, power, etc. And the easiest why to mobilize and angry mob, even amongst moderates, is to get them to believe that a sexual assault may have taken place.