PSYCHOLOGY
This was an effort to socially condition the next generation
In my community, there’s a quote painted on the side of a pale green house that reads, “A precondition to doing violence to any group of people or nation is to make them less than human.” It offers an answer to the question many have pondered after learning about acts of cruelty toward marginalized groups — how could this happen? For example, some are shocked to learn that White children often attended lynchings. This shameful history is rarely discussed, but it was common practice as witnesses treated these events like family affairs. They bought postcards and kept other souvenirs, as if they were visiting the gift shop of a theme park, rather than a homicide scene. Bringing children to witness racist mob violence was a form of social conditioning.
Americans often discuss racism as if discriminatory attitudes are the endgame. However, this prejudice frequently acts as a warning sign for racial violence. Lynchings are a clear example of this pattern. One NAACP pamphlet highlighted the 1935 lynching of Rubin Stacy. White people in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, claimed he was “threatening and frightening a White woman.” According to his great-great niece, Tenille Brown, a…
