Should We Celebrate or Be Appalled
The United States of America has just passed an anti-lynching bill into law in the year 2018. Many people are applauding the major accomplishment as a milestone even though more than over two hundred anti-lynching bills since 1918 had been introduced to the United States Congress only for all of those anti-lynching bills to get voted down by Congress. Image a major piece of legislation that would make hanging Black people, innocent victims, from being hanged and murdered, many of the hangings out in the open for the public to see, a federal crime. There were lynching parties where mobs of white men, white women, and their white children partied and celebrated the hanging and murder of a Black person because of the color of their skin and usually because of the lie of a white person, and in most cases the lie of a white woman. Thousands and thousands, although we do not have an accurate account of all of the atrocities of Black people being lynched that occurred in America, we know that almost five thousand reports of lynching, hangings, and murders of Black people, occurred in the United States between 1882 all the way through 1968. That does not account for the lynching that occurred before or after that time period, as there have been reports of Black people being hanged and lynched even today. Nor does it account for any unreported cases of lynching that has not been accounted for due to fear by Black folks, fear of retaliation by these ruthless white mobs of murderers and it does not account for the countless bodies of slain innocent Black men and Black women whose bodies were never found. That’s almost a century of unprosecuted murders, lynching that white people had committed and was allowed to get away with without the fear of law enforcement stepping in to stop these horrendous and heinous and ungodly atrocities. Of course, many law enforcement personnel like the local police had a hand and helped or turned a blind eye when it came to the mobs of ruthless, heartless, and evil white people that gathered together to murder and hang a Black person because of their sick perverted racism that was burning inside of their soulless dark evil hearts. To think that the American government bombed and killed Black people and destroyed Black communities or stood by for centuries and watched without lifting a finger as Black people were terrorized, harassed, and tormenting, along with being raped and murdered by mobs of white racists and now to think that Black people should celebrate this as a victory of some kind. It took the hard work and dedication of Black Congressmen and Black Congresswomen to fight and for almost a century to get passed what any decent human being would have thought would have been a no-brainer as far as lynching already being a federal hate crime. Lynching is a part of America’s dark and evil history that many, mostly white Americans as they are the ones who committed these horrendous atrocities against humanity, refuse to talk about or are uncomfortable talking about. This shines a bright light on the hypocrisy of so-called American values and American morals that many politicians love to talk about when the cameras are on. This is not to belittle this accomplishment or be a downer and not appreciate the hard work of folks who are fighting every day and for centuries to mold and shape this nation into a nation that is inclusive and for all to have the chance at freedom, liberty, and to pursue their happiness but we must acknowledge the dark and evil past and dark and evil history of America. We cannot move forward as a nation as long as we as a nation continue to pretend and act like America has no blood on its hands. Horrible atrocities were committed and we as a nation should not have to coddle or pacify reality because of someone’s comfort being unnerved or shaken. No one should be at peace or comfortable with the knowledge that it took this long to pass a bill to make lynching a federal hate crime or a crime at all on the local or state level. Lynching was a barbaric murderous tool used to terrorize an entire community to terrorize an entire race of people. Like slavery should have been, lynching should have been outlawed in America centuries ago. Both slavery and lynching took too long to be banned in America. Until Americans, all Americans are honest with our history, our past, and with ourselves. Then milestones like this anti-lynching bill are just another black eye, because it took so long to get passed through Congress and made into law, a black eye on a nation with a racist history that it continues to try to ignore or not deal with truthful, or with honesty, and with true sincerity towards the victims of these atrocities committed by white Americans against Black Americans and Africans. Then America’s so-called morals and values will continue to crumble under the weight of America’s dark past until America and her citizens, all of her citizens regardless of race, creed, gender, or religion are all treated with respect, humanity, civility, and dignity. It should not have taken this long for lynching to become a federal hate crime, hopefully, America will learn from this grave misstep and hopefully, it will never take this long again, to pass laws, any laws, which protect all citizens of the United States of America. America is far from perfect but with honesty and decency and integrity, perhaps we can work together as a nation to strive together to make a more perfect union.
