BACKLASH: Explosive New York Post Trayvon Martin Shooting Is Being Exploited By 'Race Hustlers'

it's hard to ascertain but it appears that at least 1/3rd of lynchings were of whites

and that believe it or not on occasion guilty folks were lynched

it was not all Emmett Till scenarios

but I would venture that the accusation of rape of a white woman was one of the main components whether true or not at the time

out west there was also the matter that law was so far away at times which led to instant justice

no matter...lynchings were to send a message and instill fear...a deterrent...and it worked...it would have on me had I been alive...likely

lynchings are not new to our shores either...it's as old as law..or lack of

the white victims of black perps is to me more unsettling than lynchings just in numbers alone

and the fact it is ignored

we (I'm white) should not have to live with that fear

and when I was a kid...long before most here...we did not

I could go to black areas in my 45-50% black hometown with no fear and be met with warmth or maybe some teasing at best...and no it was not because they were terrified of me being white

first time I felt hostility from blacks for nothing was on Subway in Manhattan in 1980...I was taken aback and realized these weren't like my lovable black folks back home

I admit we were paternalistic towards them....but compared to today it feels benign

In the Wild West most lynchings were of whites since they greatly outnumbered the blacks and were the ones most likely to be accused of horse stealing, robbing stagecoaches, etc.

I saw a magazine in a bookstore several years ago which had an article by some liberal full of guilt because the employees of his grandfather's business had lynched a black man back in the early 20th century. The person who was killed had just committed a murder--there was no doubt about that. Of course he should have been arrested, put on trial, and then executed by the state instead of by a mob.

My maternal grandmother witnessed a public hanging in Raleigh Mississippi in 1917...she was around aged 11

She told me it was a man who had killed his wife in a rage and everyone wanted him dead...his wife was a local school teacher and popular

Back then you were hanged in the county of crime....Parchman did not have a death house then and did not want the stigma as death row so you got kilt by the state in the county of the offense

“Mama” described it as a carnival affair with food and crowds etc....a preacher...last words

then snap...and the women cried and kids were sorta shocked

it left an impression on folks...something we have lost

I witnessed vigilante justice in Petit Goave Haiti in 1990...robbers...corralled by the locals and stripped and beaten to death by a mob of everyone...old women, kids, you name it...then sliced to shreds by the men

all the while the robbers pleading for mercy and shown none

later the hoogan (witch doctor) came out and laid their guts out in rows and sprinkled dust and chicken feed to condemn them to Hell...

they left the bodies piled on the side of the road like a deer camp gutpile for days to send a message to those who wish to run wild thru the countryside robbing, raping and killing....this is your fate

i hate to say it but it's hard to argue with when no other established law is about

i was the only white guy ...I had a mulatto Jamaican buddy with me...man...we both felt way outta place

but they were very cordial to us...they knew we were ship owners driving out to the Miragoane port but explained that this was just something had to be done for the safety of the community...I got it.

our translator had 6 fingers and 6 toes...and was a Hoogan too...so they would not have messed with him anyhow

...that was not my only experience with lynchings or vigilantism in my life around the world but it stuck with me

the children and the old women in thier bright pretty cotton dresses...wailing away...numbed to the pleadings..it sticks with ya...I respected them in a way...brutal...but they refused to be victims

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