No, it's not a lynching.

I am appalled by the ignorance of our president. I am appalled that he believes that comparing his experience being under inquiry for impeachment can possibly compare to what black men, women, and children have experienced in this country. This country, within living memory. Here’s his tweet:

So Republicans, you might wonder, are we witnessing a lynching? Sit down, I’ll tell you what to look for. If you'd rather see for yourselves, here https://www.gettyimages.ie/photos/lynching?mediatype=photography&phrase=lynching&sort=mostpopular

Lynching is a hate crime, a method of economic control, a voter suppression tool. It is a form of population control: lynch one black man dozens of black families will flee. It is a tool used to maintain white supremacy.

Sometimes a crime has been committed. A thief has stolen something, a woman has been raped.

Sometimes the crime is a social one, meaning a grocery store owned by a black man is making more money than a grocery store owned by a white man nearby. Sometimes a black man or boy is supposed to have insulted or looked funny at a white woman or girl. No matter what, all white folk can agree that someone needs to be punished.

Sometimes there is an arrest. Sometimes there is a trial. The police, lawyers, judges, and juries are white. The accused is not. The accused is “other,” an animal, a beast, a savage. That is how the mob justifies its crimes. And that mob is made up of fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters. Children. Teachers, electricians, farmers, mechanics. Neighbors. Church members. Individuals.

The mob feels that justice has not been done. The savage beast has not been adequately punished, whatever the verdict of the trial. So they take justice upon themselves, a become judge, jury, and executioner.

The accused (or someone else who looks similar; the mob isn’t picky) will be shot. He will be drenched in oil and set on fire (alive). She will be lynched, meaning hanged by a rope from the neck until dead. While hanging there, he may be set on fire. Their hands, ears, eyes, breasts, penis, vagina, anus, will be cut off, removed, and mutilated. Pregnant women are not spared. He will be tortured. 

The mob will cheer. The mob will take photographs which will be sold as postcards. The mob will take souvenirs: clothing, bits of the rope, pieces of bone, charred flesh.

The mob will take his freedom, her dignity, their future, their lives.

This is our history. This is our country.

But some of them were guilty. Some of them were Italian, or Jewish, or Latino, or Chinese. They were still denied justice and murdered.

It happened in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana. Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey.

Ask yourself, is this what I’m seeing? Do you need more help identifying what the president is claiming?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Thomas_Shipp_and_Abram_Smith
They were accused of robbery and murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Jesse_Washington
He was accused of raping and murdering a white woman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till
He was accused of whistling at a white woman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Anthony_Crawford
He was accused of offensive language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_of_Laura_and_L._D._Nelson
A mother and son, they were accused of murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd_Jr.
He was black. In 1998.

I am not an expert. Further reading is encouraged. We are all indebted to Ida B. Wells, the Tuskegee Institute, and the other brave men and women who documented these crimes.
http://www.monroeworktoday.org/explore/