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Comment by bloaf | Hacker News Reader

Its easy to lose sight of social change too.

In 2008, when Joe Biden debated Sarah Palin, they both supported civil unions over gay marriage because that was the centrist position at the time.

When the author was born, the USA was over 90% christian, and less than 5% of people had no religion. Today the country is closer to 70/20.

When the author was born, black people were still being lynched.

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> When the author was born, black people were still being lynched.

The BLM movement would argue that they effectively still are.

Then they would be wrong.

Unfortunately you can't ask Oscar Grant, Ahmoud Arbery, Atatiana Jefferson, Breonna Taylor, Jordan Edwards or the other countless POC who are killed disturbingly regularly by our police whether they'd count their deaths as the modern equivalent of lynching.

> Lynching is a premeditated extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate. (Wikipedia)

These deaths can hardly be called premeditated extrajudicial mob executions, with the sole exception of Ahmoud Arbery.

But is it the equivalent of lynching? Since premeditated execution by cop is in several ways worse, and in most ways about the same, I would say yes.

Which of these deaths were planned out in advance?

After the "Red Summer" of 1919, in which black people fought back against attacks by white people, whites blamed the violence on "communists" inciting the black community to riot.

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