The one black man that is alive in these pictures is only significant in that he is a means of accumulating money for others. He is a capitalist, he is an entertainer, that is all. Give him his few concessions, let him say some stuff a lot of people may not like, let him say some stuff a lot of people may like, let him smoke some pot, etc., so long as the money flow continues. Let him, and other entertainers like him, represent the black community, the lower class, the underprivileged because only a handful will ever make it upwards from their position so long as he remains their idol.
I'd like to propose, and I'm surely not the first and most assuredly won't be the last, that blackness is only slightly elevated from the position it was in during the time of this lynching photograph. On a superficial level, yes, it is; but once the 25" rims and bling are discarded (to use a stereotype of black success), you have a race that is either exploited for entertainment purposes (sports, music, movies, etc.) or villianized unjustly (the uneven ratio of black men in prisons relative to every other race, the oft-assumed notion that black men are thieves, gangsters, etc.).
While a lynching may not be approved of in these civilized times, a "cultural lynching", if you will, stepped in to take its place. Or, was it there all along, never left, and the only difference is that a black man won't be physically lynched anymore while every other aspect remains?
I wholeheartedly welcome your comments/discussion/thoughts/criticism/etc.
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