They Don’t Lynch Negroes, Do They?

If Mitt Romney’s elected, this nation will be taking a deliberate step backward towards a country where the lynchings of Black people is more likely

According to the AP Wire, the sign, which has stood for nearly a week along the street in front of the church, shows, on one side, a white mob gathered around the teens to watch the lynching in Marion, Ind. Atop the photo is the word “VOTE!!!” Beneath it is the question: “Is this a reason to vote?” The other side of the sign shows an image of slaves in chains, with wording beneath it that reads, “Lest we forget.”

“[The sign] is to let people know there’s been a price paid for the privilege of voting,” Thornton, pastor of what he describes as a multiracial congregation, “Oftentimes people get complacent and don’t realize that people made a sacrifice, matter of fact, the ultimate sacrifice for such a privilege.”

Here, let me translate the minister’s well chosen words, try to tell it the way it really is… The picture has captured apartheid in America, the price Black people paid for being uppity and wanting to vote, live where they wanted, eat where they wanted, say what they wanted… And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out the obvious: if Mitt Romney’s elected, clearly without question, this nation will be taking a deliberate step backward towards a country where the lynchings of Black people is more likely.

Here, let me circle the block on that one and spell it out to you one more time.

If Romney steals this election, which is the GOP prefered method of operation, it will embolden the obvious racist elements of this country’s “Right,” the “good ol’ boys,” the rank n’ file “Rednecks” and transparent-sheet-wearing aristocrats like the Koch Boys – to attempt a Coup on the cultural battlefield that is America, a strategic but still desperate attempt will be made to return this nation to the good ol’ days when you could merely ‘lynch-a-nigger’ for lookin’ at ya’ wrong…

Now, I don’t want to waste the moment offering redundant commentary on what the US will look like under Romney rule. What I do want to do is take the opportunity to beg, screw ask, I’m begging Afro-American ministers, from the Big Easy to Liberty City to the Windy City, from LA up to the Bay – “to seize the time…”

Please, please, please place the identical poster in front of your church!

Hell, let’s not play-around here, the reelection of Obama represents a critical moment in the tale of America, and the story of a people, Black people, and our seemingly endless quest for equality and respect…

They, and as Mrs Clinton said, when I say “they” you know who I’m talkin’ bout . “they” begrudgingly call me Mr Cortez, and they half-heartedly refer to you as Mr. or Mrs., but they yearn to call us “Boy” or “Gal.”

Let’s put the same poignant picture, which is well worth a thousand words, and the same words on three-story high billboards, put them on downtown bus stop benches and plastered on the sides of uptown buildings… for if we, as Black people of this era, if we don’t hold the line… we’ll be increasing the likelihood this current 21st century White backlash will result in lynchings.

“[The sign] is to let people know there’s been a price paid for the privilege of voting”