The lynching and murder of Emmett Till in 1955 was a shock to the nation. Seeing his mutilated body in his casket on display in the media shocked some in the nation. However, murder of blacks by white mob justice or even a singular white person was not new in 1955. Seeing black dead bodies hanging from trees, burned alive, or beaten to death was not new in 1955. Whites pointed fingers in accusations, police rounded up the “perpetrators” for so-called justice, and blacks were killed or harshly jailed. Black people smart enough to know what was coming ran in the middle of the night for their lives.
Minor offenses or the mere accusation of a minor offense was enough justification for whites to lynch and murder black men and women. Emmett Till was accused of whistling at a white woman. Because of that accusation, he was drug out of his relatives’ home in the middle of the night and murdered. The murderers were acquitted. More than 50 years later, another black boy in a southern city was murdered in the street while walking alone after dark. His cries for help were audio recorded. No one came to his aid. Conviction and justice for his murder were not permitted for his family.
Since then there has been numerous audio and videos of blacks being murdered. What was once shocking is now normal. The murders of other races and ethnic groups are not on display the way blacks are. Snuff videos of our killings are shown on the morning news, afternoon news, and the evening recap news. Videos are posted on news websites and on social media. Anyone with internet access can upload our murder and it is shared by everyone. The new standard is to see a murder taking place and to pull out a phone, capture it on video, preferably with commentary, and upload it to the internet.
Society has become anesthetized to seeing dead black bodies on display. Numb to seeing our lives taken. Videos are the first shown on social media websites. While watching television, they return from commercial, show the snuff video and cut back to another commercial for soap or candy or whatever. A large crowd of people videotaped and watched a man die for nearly nine minutes and did not take proper action to stop it. The victims are victimized more for some minor offense or some past deed which somehow justifies them dying on the street like a dog.
When is enough enough?