blog post for 2/14

I decided to do my blog post on, The Spectator Has a Picture in His Mind to Remember for a Long Time because I was very shocked at just how gruesome and torturous the lynchings were when the murder of Henry Smith took place. One of the first things that struck me as I was reading this was the fact that there was no trial that took place or even any recollection of evidence they had. Just that, Henry Smith was a guilty colored man who sexually assulted and raped a 3- year old girl. I was also surprised at just how many people attended the lynching. Over 10,000 people gathered around for this to take place as if it were some sort of entertainment, which that was what it was considered. Smith, faced an hour of torture before facting his death and there were recordings and videos that scattered throughout following the murder so the lynching could live on, as if it were to be something to be proud of. The fact that years later, the lynching was still being talked about, brought up the idea of lynching being carried down through generations along with racism following. Because, if this public torture was recorded and portrayed throughout society as entertainment; it will be carried on and the racism will follow through. The point of profit is also an interesting topic that I found to be detremental. "Profitable lynching" or "Modern lynching" was discussed as a cultural force because, if it is creating this great public attention and people are selling these pictures and recordings to different generations in society, not only will it live on, but it makes the lynching profitable and more modernized. In addition to those ideologies, the idea of a black man being the "bestial dehumanized fiend" and the white man being described as a "heroic savior" is problamatic in so many ways. Not only will this ideology carry on throughout generations, but make it hard to not categorize people based on their actions having anything to do with their skin color.

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