Our language and our history are being manipulated as blatant propaganda tools, and I resent it. Let’s begin with that.
Much is being made today on MSNBC, which is what is running here, but the same is probably true for CNN, about the horror of Trump using “yet another racist term”: lynching. He referred to attacks on him as a lynching. The “commentators” on tv “news” programs, one after another, are bringing in one activist after another, to give us history lessons on the meaning of lynching, which, as defined by their expert, is the unlawful hanging of Blacks in the United States. One expert asked, “How dare someone apply the word to himself who is not a U.S. Black?”
Before we accept the label of “racist” to a somewhat common, colloquial word, let us remember that words have actual meanings and actual histories that can be researched. A dictionary is a good starting place.
Dictionary.com is an easy to use tool for looking up the definition of a word, seeing a brief etymology (i.e., history) of the word, and samples of the word used in actual sentences. Bookmark it in your browser or put a shortcut on your phone screen for quick access.
The following information about the word lynch/lynching is excerpted from Dictionary.com:
“verb (used with object)
to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.
“(tr) (of a mob) to punish (a person) for some supposed offence by hanging without a trial
“Lynching can also refer to any kind of vigilante justice or extrajudicial murder, typically of a member of a minority group. For instance, the Indian Supreme Court ruled in July 2018 that “mob lynching is a crime no matter what the motive is” in response to “cow vigilantism”—the murder of those who eat cows, which are sacred in the Hindu religion.
“Lynching is also sometimes figuratively used when someone is felt to be wrongly persecuted, as if hounded by a metaphorical lynch mob. ”
Example of Metaphorical Use–“These political attacks on me are nothing but a lynching.”
(Metaphors are used to compare, often with exaggeration: “He threw me a spitball with that proposal.”)
WORD ORIGIN FOR LYNCH
“…probably after Charles Lynch (1736–96), Virginia justice of the peace, who presided over extralegal trials of Tories during the American War of Independence
“Others claim that the name comes from a different Virginian active around the same time, one Charles Lynch, who is also associated with a “lynch law” similarly connected to the suppression and incarceration of Loyalists. The city of Lynchburg, Virginia, is likely named for his brother, John Lynch.
“Various ethnic groups in the U.S. were victims of lynching, including Mexicans, Chinese, African-Americans, and European-Americans.” (My note: Yes, the mob lynched some as a result of prejudice alone; but accused horse and cattle thieves were lynched, murderers were lynched, rapists were lynched.)
IN SUMMARY
I believe in law. Actual historical lynchings and contemporary lynchings are mob ruled, meaning emotion-ruled, meaning irrational-ruled. Mob rule cannot be tolerated in a law based society.
That said, language is a living entity. Words morph into living metaphors. So, I may very well say, “I feel a lynching coming on.” Meaning, I feel an unjust verbal attack coming my way. The attack is not going to hang me from a tree. The attack will fling unending, unsubstantiated accusations my way, day in, day out until I am silenced.
The obvious propagandizing of our language and our history is disturbing, but I am happy to say that, at the least, I know the meaning and the history of the word, lynch/lynching.