Are We Lynching White People Now?

There Will Be No Mercy, Let Alone, Accuracy

I have waited to comment in the hopes someone would see a problem with this series of events (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/nebraska-man-to-be-imprisoned-for-leaving-a-noose-on-black-co-workers-work-machine/ and https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/what-bruce-quinn-do-nebraska-man-serve-prison-time-workplace-noose-incident). Apparently, none have. What Quinn did was irresponsible, racist, and wrong. Suspending him, or firing him would have been a reasonable response. How this became a Federal case is a bit disturbing. 

The Federal Government is limited by enumerated powers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_One_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Enumerated_powers) and really did not have much reason to intervene. Omaha (https://humanrights.cityofomaha.org/) and Nebraska (https://neoc.nebraska.gov/index.html) have human rights offices designed for such cases. Also, local and state law enforcement would be preferable to Federal action. Yet, in spite of the case having nothing to do with a national concern and involving no rape, robbery, theft or murder, the Federal government became involved. Yes, civil rights are a concern but there are certain facts which need exposure.

Many people, including Blacks, have assumed lynchings have been a uniquely racist action, yet this is not true. 19th century America is full of violence and lynchings. Nebraska has had numerous lynchings including the lynching woman women (http://genealogytrails.com/neb/clay/crimesandmurders.htm) and there are 50 other lynchings (https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/de/news/news-articles/nebraska-lynch-mobs-not-always-a-wild-west-creation-says-historian/). These repeated distortions result in elusive conflicts.

I am a bit alarmed of how the victim of this racist prank was so upset over a tiny imitation noose because he really played up on a stereotype of Black superstitious and easy to frighten. At the same time, I am stunned by the lack of proportionality of the sentencing. Jail space should be for those proven to be a harm to society, such as rapists, murderers, and thieves. A fine and community service would have been far more fitting compared to four months of jail, but this prosecution of the offender appears more about doing a high-tech lynching of a White man.

The law has to be applied fairly to everyone or it really applies to no one. There seems to be an effort to create a fate where the only role a Black person can fulfill is to be a minority victim, yet there are many places where Blacks make up the majority (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_minority_in_the_United_States) and most certainly Blacks have achieved many accomplishments.

I am glad the unjust lynchings of William Brown and George Smith are now recognized by public markers, but they leave out much context. They were made possible by the Equal Justice Initiative (https://eji.org/). For example, the mob attempted to lynch the Omaha Mayor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Parsons_Smith). Also, the experiences of lynching are what lead to segregation. If people cannot live together in peace, they will live separately in peace. Yet, if one race can only be seen as a victim and the other only as an oppressor, what is the end result?

Some may wonder why I bother. Malcolm X was born in Omaha so his history matters to me. His family, according to his father, left Omaha because of threats supposedly from the Ku Klux Klan. I believe the threats were real but I doubt the Ku Klux Klan made such threats to Malcolm’s father, Rev. Earl Little. The Ku Klux Klan in Nebraska was rural, focused on temperance, and was heavily anti-Catholic at the time (https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_32.html and https://unlhistory.unl.edu/xslt/xslt.php?&_xmlsrc=https://unlhistory.unl.edu/legacy/unl.00026/unl.00026.03.xml&_xslsrc=https://unlhistory.unl.edu/xslt/unlhistory.xsl).

Since Omaha has had a Catholic Archdiocese since 1885, I have doubts of any substantial Ku Klux Klan activity in Omaha yet apparently some were active (https://nebraskastudies.org/en/1900-1924/racial-tensions/). In addition, the family moved to Milwaukee and Lansing which also had active Ku Klux Klan groups. I suspect Rev. Little was receiving threats from others who viewed his back-to-Africa ideas as a step backward for race relations but who knows?