I was not amused by Deadly Amusements!

I was horrified by Hale's piece about the lynchings that took place in the South against black men. There were several statements made and facts stated which intrigued me and I would like to bring these up. Firstly, the idea of white men keeping body parts of the black men they kill seems absurd to me. In a time where white men are trying to be segregated from black men, and look down upon black men, why would they want to keep a part of a black man so close to them, especially after they had violently murdered him? Keeping a part of another human being after they pass on seems to be an act that one would do only if they worshipped or loved the human deeply. If I were a white man whose wife had been raped by another man, I don't think I would want to keep his penis, or any other body part, as a keepsake. Secondly, there is a comparison made between sexuality and the spectacle lynchings. I believe it takes a seriously deranged person to think that a photo of a man's mutilated body is 'sexy' or can be cherished. I also can't understand how white men's sexuality is threatened by black men's power politically and economically. However, I do believe that this belief that raping a white woman is lowering the sexual power of white males implies the power that women have in society. Like a previous reading, that stated that a society's worth is based on how their women are treated, I believe this is a similar circumstance. The fact that a women being raped led to a murder of the man by a huge amount of people signified both the importance of women to men, and men's feeling that they need to protect women. Although the protection idea lessens a women's power, it is still evident how white men would feel helpless and worthless without the presence of white women. I guess in an odd sort of way, murdering a man for rape was showing respect to women at the expense of black men, as well as white men, who at no time did I respect while reading this piece.