Studying these photos has engendered in me a disgust for the indifference and lack of empathy of the white man who played witness to such disturbing acts of violence such as lynching. The one photograph that made the greatest impact on me represented two black men being hung from a bridge in which the white witnesses gathered to watch the “event,” as it were. This was particularly memorable because it portrayed, whether it intended to or not, the feeling of supremacy that whites felt over blacks. This supremacy is conveyed by the position of white people in the picture – they are standing above the hanging black men. Their physical position symbolizes their feeling that they are above blacks in every way.
The impact of viewing such a scene, in contrast to reading a poem describing a lynching, gives it a more concrete context – it makes the matter more personal and less of a broad view of what was happening at the time. The poem “Portrait in Georgia,” for example, remains abstract in its address of the subject of lynching. Though it gives a number of extremely gory images and details, like “her slim body, white as the ash/of black flesh after flames,” it comments more on the act of lynching in general, and does not identify one case in particular. Actually seeing a specific image is much more disturbing because the violence is, in reality, essentially unspeakable. To put such tragedy into words is to lose some of its horror.
It is important for people to look back on acts of violence to see how easily people can enter into a certain mindset that makes them blind to the horror they are causing. Recognizing that this can happen to anyone is vital in keeping people from making the same mistake in the present or future.

This is my test post.....