Thursday, April 11, 2019

[xocijlqn] The threat of lynching remains credible today

"It has been said numerous times, but if those girls and women were white, R. Kelly probably wouldn't even be alive right now."  https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/11-thoughts-about-surviving-r-kelly-now-that-ive-had-a-1831551200

The author seems to be speaking of a modern -- not historical -- African-American experience in which the threat of being lynched is still very real and credible, and very commonly understood to be real and credible, if a black man were perceived to have done to white women what R. Kelly is accused of having done to black women.  As a convenient point of comparison, Harvey Weinstein is being accused of doing to white women what R. Kelly is accused of having done to black women, and Weinstein is alive right now, facing the normal criminal justice system (no death penalty) and not a lynch mob.  The threat of being lynched remains an African-American experience.

Although the threat is real, lynchings aren't happening.  Why not?  We hypothesize that it is because there are some nearly perfect mechanisms of segregation, preventing (some) African-American men (which ones?) from accessing white women.  What are those mechanisms?  What other segregation are those mechanisms enforcing?  Probably segregating rich from poor, though it's more complicated than that: why was R. Kelly unable to access poor white girls?  Of course, we should also examine why R. Kelly was able to access black girls.  Enablers were involved.  Examine segregation generically as a result of the existence of enablers or lack thereof.  It's social at the level of actions of individuals.

Previously, speculating on mechanisms that inculcate the fear of being lynched.

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