26 votes

The spot where Emmett Till’s body was found is marked by this sign. People keep shooting it up.

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11 comments

  1. [3]
    godzilla_lives
    Link
    Mississippian here. This simultaneously fills my heart with both rage and sorrow. It really shows the huge disconnect individuals are able to have with their actions, and the greater meaning of...

    Mississippian here. This simultaneously fills my heart with both rage and sorrow. It really shows the huge disconnect individuals are able to have with their actions, and the greater meaning of their actions. And I have a hard time reconciling that.

    It makes me think of the horrors that are occurring in Bangladesh right now. The propagators of violence and bloodshed have families, hearts and minds, goals and dreams and fears. What makes me different from them? What causes such a huge disconnect between an individual and humility? I don't know. I'm asking questions that smarter people than myself have asked for years.

    Not so fun fact: the governor of Mississippi is the nephew of the woman who incited the whole thing.

    12 votes
    1. [2]
      lmn
      Link Parent
      It's possible to see this as a "glass half full" kind of thing. Sixty years ago racists were getting away with lynching teens. Today, they're getting away with shooting signs. That's progress....

      It's possible to see this as a "glass half full" kind of thing. Sixty years ago racists were getting away with lynching teens. Today, they're getting away with shooting signs. That's progress. Sixty years from now they'll probably be shooting virtual reality signs.

      2 votes
      1. godzilla_lives
        Link Parent
        That really is true, and it's something I tell myself often, especially with the news coming out in America. It's something I truly believe too; that even though we take a shit ton of steps back...

        That really is true, and it's something I tell myself often, especially with the news coming out in America. It's something I truly believe too; that even though we take a shit ton of steps back sometimes, progression is an unrelenting force pushing through the world.

        I'm all for VR replacing crime. I do love me some Grand Theft Auto :)

        1 vote
  2. [3]
    jprich
    Link
    "The sign is 10 minutes outside town and two miles down a gravel road." So its not just a random lets shoot at a road sign that happens all the time in the sticks.

    "The sign is 10 minutes outside town and two miles down a gravel road."
    So its not just a random lets shoot at a road sign that happens all the time in the sticks.

    9 votes
    1. [2]
      39hp
      Link Parent
      I just fundamentally cannot begin to understand why anyone would shoot this sign. Even if it was just on a shoulder with another sign that read, Please shoot this sign, I cant understand why...

      I just fundamentally cannot begin to understand why anyone would shoot this sign. Even if it was just on a shoulder with another sign that read, Please shoot this sign, I cant understand why anyone would. I try to form a question and just repeat the word, “What,” over and over again for a solid minute.

      8 votes
      1. [2]
        Comment removed by site admin
        Link Parent
        1. jprich
          Link Parent
          Its like that in most places outside of medium/large cities. Not just the south. I lived in upstate NY for 4 years and saw just as many confederate and dont tread on me flags that I did in...

          Its like that in most places outside of medium/large cities. Not just the south.
          I lived in upstate NY for 4 years and saw just as many confederate and dont tread on me flags that I did in Virginia and Georgia.
          When you dont live near people different from you they become The Others and thus the enemy.

          3 votes
  3. [2]
    JayJay
    Link
    I hope the next sign comes with a night vision wireless camera so we can find the vandals and charge them appropriately. I'd happily contribute to any crowd funding endeavor to do so. Racist cause...

    I hope the next sign comes with a night vision wireless camera so we can find the vandals and charge them appropriately. I'd happily contribute to any crowd funding endeavor to do so. Racist cause or not, vandalism and improper use of a deadly weapon is enough reason to put these trash behind bars.

    6 votes
    1. godzilla_lives
      Link Parent
      Now that's a fine idea. A trail cam with night vision can be camouflaged and hidden for a relatively low price. Maybe we should make some phone calls.

      Now that's a fine idea. A trail cam with night vision can be camouflaged and hidden for a relatively low price. Maybe we should make some phone calls.

      3 votes
  4. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. godzilla_lives
      Link Parent
      The sad truth is, it's not just Mississippi. There are horrors such as this occurring throughout all of history, and even still to this day, with numerous reasons and causes and effects. One only...

      The sad truth is, it's not just Mississippi. There are horrors such as this occurring throughout all of history, and even still to this day, with numerous reasons and causes and effects. One only has to look up the eye-gougings in Bangladesh last week, or Belgium's severed hands in the Congo, or the United States' Trail of Tears to recognize this. It's not so simple as "reduce them to ash" and the problem is gone for ever. That's not how humans work.

      that much hatred

      I think that's the difficult thing to reconcile here, because one could argue (perhaps correctly) that these men and women with such evil in their hearts deserve to be hated, and I don't think that's beyond expectation, at all. But we're not going to make the world a better place through hatred. And that's the part that's so hard to reconcile and figure out; to do away with the knee-jerk primal reactions of anger and hatred and vengeance, and instead reach towards the reconciliation of society as a whole in order to grow and heal together.

      "I have a dream that one day little black boys and black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."

      We must be above hatred, and for which it stands.

      I don't mean to call you out or anything. I just want to make that point, because I think it's very important.

    2. [2]
      Comment removed by site admin
      Link Parent
      1. godzilla_lives
        Link Parent
        Everyone should see that picture. It's what his mother wanted.

        Everyone should see that picture. It's what his mother wanted.

        1 vote
  5. saydie
    Link
    Another heartbreaking and horrifying aspect of the death of Emmett Till is the fact that the woman who told her husband that he'd whistled and smiled at her confessed on her deathbed that she'd...

    Another heartbreaking and horrifying aspect of the death of Emmett Till is the fact that the woman who told her husband that he'd whistled and smiled at her confessed on her deathbed that she'd lied about it. That lie provoked his murderers. That lie set in motion Till's death by torture. She lived with that secret for fifty years, watched the men who killed Emmett get away with the murder of a child and still kept silent. I often wonder what finally made her tell the truth.

    2 votes