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#SayHerName: 100 Years Ago, Mary Turner Was Lynched [View all]
***TRIGGER WARNING***Mary Turner was eight months pregnant when she was lynched on May 19, 1918. It all began, as do many things in America, with a mediocre white man.
snip
What happened next is so horrific and inhumane that I struggled with whether I should even write it. Tears obscure my vision as I write these words, yet, as America tries to ignore the bloody stain of a white supremacy as ubiquitous as it is haunting, we need to bear witness to Mary Turner. We cannot forget what she endured. It is certainly not reveling at the specter of black death to prevent time and the institutional white-washing of history to erase Turner from our collective memory, thereby retroactively saying that her life did not matter. We need to know what happened. But please understand that what comes next is triggering. What you read, you cannot unread; the mental images created, you cannot unsee.
snip
What happened next is so horrific and inhumane that I struggled with whether I should even write it. Tears obscure my vision as I write these words, yet, as America tries to ignore the bloody stain of a white supremacy as ubiquitous as it is haunting, we need to bear witness to Mary Turner. We cannot forget what she endured. It is certainly not reveling at the specter of black death to prevent time and the institutional white-washing of history to erase Turner from our collective memory, thereby retroactively saying that her life did not matter. We need to know what happened. But please understand that what comes next is triggering. What you read, you cannot unread; the mental images created, you cannot unsee.
I will add one more excerpt. It is up to you to decde to read it all. It is gruesome, vicious and inhuman and this is a clear part of our past that some just ignore and wish it to be swept under the rug. I am so ashamed.
I find it embarrassing to see so many 'splainin to black people that they should just get over it. These people are their ancestors. So many of them murdered. We have a history of cruelty, ignorance and a white male privilege that after all these years is still on full display. Your choice to read beyond what I have posted. Again I will issue a Trigger Warning.
In their mind, they’d taught her a lesson; made of her an example. And despite the fact that a full report, including the names of instigators and over 10 participants, was given to Hugh Dorsey, the governor of Georgia, no one was ever charged with the murders.
People in this country like to think themselves as being above this kind of gruesome violence; as if the genocides we witness in other countries could never happen here. We’ve built an entire ethos on the notion of American moral exceptionalism. In fact, recent Congressional hearings about Gina Haspel, the intelligence officer nominated by the 45th president of the United States to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was all about discovering if she would live up to the moral expectations of citizens of this country. What Mary Turner and the subsequent silence about what happened in Georgia in 1918 teaches us is that America, at best, is morally compromised and, at worst, morally bankrupt.
We need to remember Mary Turner. We need to remember her unborn child. Failing to do so, we say retroactively that their lives do not matter.
Today marks 100 years since their murder. We speak their name. We bear witness.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/sayhername-100-years-ago-mary-turner-was-lynched-1826019454
People in this country like to think themselves as being above this kind of gruesome violence; as if the genocides we witness in other countries could never happen here. We’ve built an entire ethos on the notion of American moral exceptionalism. In fact, recent Congressional hearings about Gina Haspel, the intelligence officer nominated by the 45th president of the United States to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was all about discovering if she would live up to the moral expectations of citizens of this country. What Mary Turner and the subsequent silence about what happened in Georgia in 1918 teaches us is that America, at best, is morally compromised and, at worst, morally bankrupt.
We need to remember Mary Turner. We need to remember her unborn child. Failing to do so, we say retroactively that their lives do not matter.
Today marks 100 years since their murder. We speak their name. We bear witness.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/sayhername-100-years-ago-mary-turner-was-lynched-1826019454
To see more upset about the word wypipo than we do of our horrific past is frightening. Let a little bit of love touch your soul.
We can just ignore the past, pretend it is not true. We can erase the names, printed in a graphite pencil, that will just leave a blank white page. Is that what you want? Just a blank white page? I do not. How lifeless the world would be without color.
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