"Lynchings of various sorts"

"Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940" by Elizabeth Hale is a must read for those who want to grasp the background and meaning of color of skin, race, racism, Jim Crow, and all that is involved in these matters. One particular chapter that speaks to the debased character of humanity is the chapter "Deadly Amusements" in which she vividly in words and in photographs describes the horrors of lynchings as theater complete with souvenirs.

In January, 2006, my path crossed with Dr. Clenora Hudson-Weems, the premiere expert on the Emmett Till case and its contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. She had organized the First Annual Conference on the Black Farmer and Land Loss. Through a unique set of circumstances, I was both conference speaker and listener/learner. It was attended by farmers, advocates, celebrities, and advocacy group leaders, and by Christians and Muslims alike. During one of her presentations, Dr. Hudson-Weems coined the phrase "lynchings of various sorts." Her comments took the audience back to the days of literal lynchings, as described in Dr. Hale's book, and likely etched in the hearts of minds of the members of the audience by oral tradition in their families. She then segued to the "lynching" of Black farmers as they have lost or are losing their land in various nefarious ways. She spoke of her own feelings of being "lynched" as someone had appropriated her materials on Emmett Till as his own.

Theft is a serious offense, regardless of whether it's property, intellectual or otherwise. Lynching is a very serious matter as it involves not just the taking of that which belongs to someone else, but especially when that which is stolen leads the person to feel lynched, robbed of identity, meaning, purpose, and self.

"I was meant to farm," "farming is in my blood," "farming is in our DNA," and "my blood is on this land," are various words and sentences used by African American farmers to describe their intense attachment to the land. When that to which they are attached, that which gives them meaning and purpose as well as livelihood, is torn away from them, they describe that feeling as being lynched.

I wonder if we in White America get it.