I had never in my life been abused by whites, but I had already become as conditioned to their existence as though I had been the victim of a thousand lynchings. — Richard Wright
Mob lynching is considered a heinous violation of human dignity, and a gross infraction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But what is mob lynching?
Mob lynching refers to the extrajudicial execution of people based on various factors like race, creed, caste, community, language, and more. It is most often used to describe informal public executions carried out by a mob in order to punish alleged or convicted wrong-doers, or simply to evoke fear and intimidate people into submission.
Mob lynching is an unfortunate culture that has been around in some places longer than the police, such as in Nigeria, and has been prevalent throughout history all over the world.
A public act of fear
Mob lynching sounds like a crime committed in some deep and dark corner of an alley, seen only by the perpetrator and the poor victim; but it is not. It is a public matter, done for everyone to see, for everyone to notice.
People being burned to death in front of crowds, people hanging from tall trees, bodies made into reminders: “If you dare step out of line, you’ll be next.”
Fear, nothing but fear, spreads within marginalised communities. Deep-seated terror and constant stress affect individuals.
Trauma as spectacle
Especially in today’s time, seeing a petrifying crime once is not enough. Photos and videos have your back. They ensure that the most terrifying event you have witnessed in your life will never leave you.
Your trauma will forever remain a spectacle. After all, the internet is forever.
People who belong to communities that are privy to lynchings witness, and are often even forced to participate in, so many mob lynchings that they become numb to it all.
Extreme crime becomes so normal that the victims do not even seem human to them anymore, just another person who could not be saved.
What lynching leaves behind
Mob lynchings do not just take the lives of the victims. They take away the lives of the witnesses, and the children of the witnesses who will forever be forced to live in fear because their system cannot protect them, or maybe, the system does not want to.