Lynching

deliciouskaek:

TW: graphic description of violent acts

barefootwarriorqueen:

sinidentidades:

A lot of people seem to think that lynching just involved hanging someone from a tree by their necks. That’s actually a lot more humane than what really went on. There was a lot of ritualistic, sexualized aspects to lynching. People had their breasts removed, their genitals mutilated etc. It was usually done in a public setting, and it was over the course of several days a lot of the time. It wasn’t just a simple hanging. It was much more cruel and horrible than that. 

Thank youuu.

and let’s not forget it was often a family affair. kids would sometimes get the day off school to attend, they’d have cookouts around the body, and once in a while they’d burn the body or its parts along with the food. folks had their pictures taken, and some folks took bones home with them.

it wasn’t about punishment for some usually imagined and/or invented crime. it was about asserting white power and supremacy, and about humiliation of the victim. it was a reminder that no matter how hard they worked and how far they’d come, they were still, in the end, just a nigger.

and it still is.