Confronting Terror Attacks Against African-Americans, Resisting White Supremacy, Combating White Nationalism!
Timothy Caughman, 66, was a former social worker, who, in his retirement years, had taken to recycling to keep busy and help pay his rent. Caughman was African-American, which made him a target for his professed killer, who stabbed him to death with a sword, a white supremacist who admitted traveling to NYC from Baltimore to kill a Black man because "New York is the media capital of the world". The killing of Timothy Caughman was a hate crime and an act of terrorism.
We should also think of it as a lynching, the latest episode in an American form of racial violence that stretches back to the 19th century. To describe this attack as a lynching is to emphasize the reality of anti-black violence, its persistence through time, and the way in which its justified and the failure of our society to fully excavate our past to grapple with the present. By understanding Timothy Caughmans murder as a lynching, we gain clarity into how racial violence is more than hate"how its meant to enforce racial caste by making an example of any unfortunate person of African ancestry who circumstantially crossed the path of the white supremacist. We must understand Timothy Caughmans murder as a modern lynching, for we have yet to understand and grapple with the legacy of racial oppression and its current manifestations as a society.
To call Timothy Caughmans murder an act of terrorism is also to re-contextualize the age of lynching as an earlier age of terrorism, forgotten by most, but whose wounds still fester and which scars remain prevalent in the collective memories of African-Americans.
And there is a political context for white supremacy and white nationalism flaring up anew. President Trump, has yet to comment on the extraordinary murder of Timothy Caughman, issue condolences to his family, or condemn this act of terror. He did choose to relate to and send a message of condolence about an American victim of terrorism in London. Trump never condemned the January shooting at a Qubec mosque that took six lives, and it took him a week to condemn the killing of an Indian computer engineer in Kansas. "J'accuse ...!" Black Lives Matter: Timothy Caughmans death renews the challenge for us to tear out root and branch, the cultural, social, economic and political systemic manifestations of racism and the impediments to equality. Say HIS NAME: TIMOTHY CAUGHMAN!
produced by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash
please notify us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org
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