Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Justice - 27. Violence and Intimidation - 3. Tne Psychopathology of Lynching
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
564 An American Dilemma
real and sinister meaning to H. L. Mencken’s statement that . . lynching
often takes the place of the merry-go-round, the theatre, the symphony
orchestra, and other diversions common to larger communities.”®^
Thus far we have considered the background factors and underlying
causes of lynching. The causation is such that, when the time is ripe, almost
any incident may touch it off. The incident is usually some crime, real or
suspected, by a Negro against a white, or merely a ^^racial insult,” such as
when a Negro buys an automobile or steps beyond the etiquette of race
relations in any way. Rumors will often start or accelerate a lynching.
The lynching itself may take one or two main forms: in a mob lynching
the whole community will participate with a high degree of frenzy;®® in
a vigilante lynching a restricted number of men, often disguised, will
perform the deed with much ceremony.
The effects of lynchings are far-reaching. In the locality where it has
happened and in a wide region surrounding it, the relations between the
two groups deteriorate. The Negroes are terror-stricken and sullen.®^ The
whites are anxious and are likely to show the assertiveness and suspicion ol
persons with bad, but hardened, consciences. Some whites are afraid of
Negro retaliation or emigration. Every visitor to such a community must
notice the antagonism and mutual lack of confidence between the two
groups.
The long-run effects of lynching also arc bad. As students of the Negro
problem have long recognized, crime will not be hampered but rather
stimulated by violence.®® Far outside the locality where the lynching has
occurred, in fact, all over the nation, it . brutalizes feelings. Even in the
North, some people have ceased to be concerned when another lynching
occurs, and they jest about going South to see a lynching. It must have a
particularly bad influence upon interracial attitudes of young people in
the two groups.®® Thus lynching has a psychological Importance out of
all proportion to its small frequency.
In every locality where there has been a lynching there are a great
many people—sometimes a clear majority—who, when they think calmly,
consider the incident most unfortunate. The nation-wide publicity created
around a lynching community is, for one things commonly recognized to
be damaging. The present writer has met few whites of the middle and
upper classes in the South who have expressed themselves as in favor of
lynch justice. But equally few have pretended that they would take any
personal risks to hinder a lynching, and they make no effort to punish the
lynchers. The ordinary Southerner apparently thinks that neither the
upholding of the majesty of the law nor the life of even an innocent
Negro is worth such a sacrifice. And, above all, Negroes must not have
t)>e satisfaction of seeing the whites divided or their assailants punished^
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
