"Sock It to Me"

[Wilson Gray]

That's a beautiful statement of the problem, Larry. I have to say that
you've got me. I'm not going to try to answer the question. But I'll
certainly ponder it.

-Wilson

On Jun 7, 2005, at 4:07 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Sock It to Me"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
>> Jon, I don't think that there's anyone who knows anything about
>> lynching who thinks that a lynching can be only a hanging. Emmitt Till
>> wasn't hanged. In a famous lynching in Omaha, the lynchee was to a
>> railroad crosstie and burned alive. There was a lynching in Missouri
>> in which the lynchee was tied to the roof of a building, which was
>> then burned down around him. During the Waco Horror, the lynchee was
>> suspended by chains from a tree limb and roasted to death over a slow
>> fire. Don't underestimate American ingenuity.
>>
>> -Wilson
>
> But did any of these involve cases in which someone was pulled over,
> thrown into a car or whatever, and taken to their place of execution?
> The prototype instance of lynching (or so this would be suggested
> from e.g. the very powerful displays of photographs documenting
> lynching that traveled around to different museums recently) seem to
> involve kidnapping someone from official custody and/or hanging, if
> not both, rather than (as with Liuzzo and Chaney/Goodman/Schwerner)
> seizing someone who was at liberty and executing them, even when the
> reason has to do with racism.  Otherwise, what *is* the definition?
> *Any* murder by vigilantes motivated by racism or religious
> prejudice?  (The AHD entry does specify "especially by hanging",
> FWIW.)  For example, did that fairly recent instance in which an
> African-American man was picked out at random by some white racists
> who dragged him to his death with their truck count as a lynching?
> Or do the perpetrators have to be motivated by the belief that
> society *ought* to put someone to death but won't, so they have to
> take the law into their own hands?  Maybe this is really another case
> of lexical prototypes.
>
> Larry
>
>> On 6/5/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>>>  Subject:      Re: "Sock It to Me"
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ----------
>>>
>>>  FWIW, "lynching" has never been restricted to hanging, though in
>>> modern usage that does seem to be the usual connotation.
>>> Undoubtedly it's been influenced by innumerable movie lynchings of
>>> hoss and cattle thieves who are uniformly hanged by vigilantes.
>>>
>>>  JL
>>>
>>>  Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>>  Sender: American Dialect Society
>>>  Poster: Laurence Horn
>>>  Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> ----------
>>>
>>>  At 3:03 AM -0400 6/5/05, Sam Clements wrote:
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Wilson Gray"
>>>> To:
>>>> Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 1:03 AM
>>>> Subject: Re: "Sock It to Me"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Jesus! - you should pardon the expression - how long have you been
>>>>> living in this country, Ben? Are you really so unaware of the way
>>>>> that
>>>>> things were and are? Don't you recall that, in the _'Sixties,_ the
>>>>> lynching of blacks and even of some Jews was still a commonplace
>>>>> practice?
>>>>> -Wilson
>>>>
>>>> Assuming you're referring to Goodman and Schwermer, I'd hardly
>>> call lynching
>>>> of Jews in the Sixties a "commonplace practice."
>>>>
>>>  And technically, IIRC, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner (along
>>>  with James Chaney, who was of course black and not a Jew) were not
>>>  lynched, nor was Violet Liuzzo (who was neither, but another
>>> murdered
>>>  civil rights volunteer), although other whites working alongside
>>>  blacks during those years may well have been murdered by lynching
>>> (as
>>>  opposed to shooting, stabbing, burning, etc.) during the era of
>>>  voting registrations drives and freedom riding. I can't recall
>>>  hearing about any whites (Jewish or not) who were, though.
>>>
>>>  Larry
>>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> -Wilson Gray
>