Monroe & Florence Work Today - Extra Resources
Activity 3 » News article #5
Use this example to analyze how lynching violence is treated in contemporary political discourse. Read the following article to be able to answer these questions:
1. Who is invoking the idea of lynching? What is their job/position?
2. Who is the audience (or audiences) they knew would hear their comment?
3. Based on the circumstances, in your opinion: do you think this person knows about the history of lynching? (what clues do they leave?)
4. Does their comment reveal a belief that “some people” don’t deserve the same rights that they enjoy?
5. Does the article mention anyone who reacted to the comment? Based on your other answers, how do you assess those reactions?
Missouri Lawmaker Calls for Lynching of Vandals Defacing Confederate Statue
30 Aug 2017. By Sarah Fenske, riverfronttimes.com.
Copyright © 2017 Riverfront Times.
Included here under the principle of fair use for an educational purpose.
If the article is no longer online, the following screenshot preserves the content for your classroom use:
Missouri Lawmaker Calls for Lynching of Vandals Defacing Confederate Statue
Posted By Sarah Fenske on Wed, Aug 30, 2017 at 8:44 pm
Vandals who threw paint on a Confederate statue in Springfield, Missouri should be “hung from a tall tree with a long rope,” a Missouri lawmaker wrote on Facebook earlier today.
State Representative Warren Love (R-Osceola) rapidly deleted the post, but not before it got shared a few times — and not before it was spotted by Democrats.
Warren Love
3 hrs ago • KY3 - Instant Articles
This is totally against the law. I hope they are found & hung from a tall tree with a long rope. National Veterans Cemetery in Springfield, Mo
[photo of two vandals standing on a statue pedestal]
The Missouri Democratic Party is now calling for his resignation. “This is a call for lynching by a sitting State Representative,” the party said in a statement issued this evening. “Calls for political violence are unacceptable. He needs to resign.”
The state lawmaker, who comes from a tiny town about an hour and 40 minutes southeast of Kansas City, was sharing a story from a Springfield, Missouri, television station reporting on vandalism to a statute of a Confederate at the Springfield National Cemetery.
He's not the only Missouri pol to make the news for impolitic comments on Facebook in recent weeks. State Representative Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City) has been targeted for removal after writing on Facebook that she hopes President Trump is assassinated. Chappelle-Nadal has been stripped of committee assignments, with the lieutenant governor saying he will call for her expulsion if she doesn't resign.
Chappelle-Nadal also quickly deleted the post.
Love told the Post-Dispatch that he didn't literally want the vandals lynched.
“That was an exaggerated statement that, you know, a lot of times is used in the Western world when somebody does a crime or commits theft. ... That's just a Western term and I'm very much a Western man. You know, I wear a coat. You know, I dress Western. And, you know, I'm the cowboy of the Capitol.”
Copyright © 2017 Riverfront Times.
1. Person who invoked lynching, and their position:
2. Their intended audience or audiences:
3. (Your opinion): Do you think they knew the history of lynching they were invoking?
(what clues):
4. Does the comment reveal a personal belief that “some people” don’t deserve the same rights?
Is this white supremacy in disguise?
5. Who reacted to the lynching comment:
(Your opinion): Do you agree with the reactions, or have other thoughts?
