Just don’t call it terrorism
by digby
Via Vox, we find a new study indicating that there were many more lynchings of black men in the 12 states where it was most common than previously known. These are the states they looked at:
The study also gives some good context that should be made more explicit if people want to understand how the world works:
Lynchings weren’t typically carried out as a punishment for a crime. The report said, “Racial terror lynching was a tool used to enforce Jim Crow laws and racial segregation — a tactic for maintaining racial control by victimizing the entire African American community, not merely punishment of an alleged perpetrator for a crime.”
Some examples:
In 1904, a white mob lynched General Lee, a black man, for knocking on the door of a white woman’s house in Reevesville, South Carolina.
In 1916, white men in Cedarbluff, Mississippi, lynched Jeff Brown because he accidentally bumped into a white girl while running to catch a train.
In 1919, a white mob in Blakely, Georgia, lynched William Little for refusing to take off his army uniform after returning from World War I.
These acts had a deep impact on Southern governance and culture. Many blacks left the South out of fear that they could be the next victims of lynchings. Those who remained in the region were oppressed by Jim Crow laws that imposed segregation — and many were afraid to speak out due to concerns for their lives.
That happened right here in the good old US of A. And it’s not ancient history. There are people alive today who witnessed this violence.
Here’s another chart for you:
Published in October 2014, the Feminist Majority Foundation’s 2014 National Clinic Violence survey found that abortion clinic doctors and nurses reported higher instances of intimidation tactics and stalking than in prior years. The research included 242 abortion providers nationwide, with participants such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Abortion Care Network and other independent, unaffiliated clinics.
The survey found that nearly 70 percent of abortion providers said they experience frequent harassment.
Abortion clinics also reported a 25.3 percent overall increase in “threats and targeted intimidation tactics” between 2010 and 2014. FMF researchers defined these threats and targeted intimidation acts as distributing pamphlets that personally threaten doctors, releasing personal information of staff, picketing homes of staffers, posting flyers that read “Killer Among Us” with photos of doctors’ faces, and releasing doctors’ personal information on the Internet.
The survey found that physicians reported increased stalking by anti-abortion protesters between 2010 and 2014, as well as many more instances of their personal information being posted on the Internet. Anti-abortion protesters are also creating more “Wanted” and “Killers Among Us”-type pamphlets, featuring doctors’ and nurses’ personal information as a means to threaten and intimidate staff.
I won’t talk about the crusades. But I will agree with the president that we shouldn’t “get up on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place.” Obviously …
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