Lynching violence functions as orgasmic mastery over white fear

Evidence

Only the sensation of feeling himself violently stiffen interrupts the beating the rage inspires. As with the lynching that he witnessed as a child, the violence (the castration at the lynching) produces a climax, a moment when ‘the blood came roaring down.’ It is through the violence, a literal orgasm, that the white man knows himself as master of his own fate, as a man not overcome by the singing or by feminine warmth. The violence, the moment of terrible intimacy when the racial and the feminine threat are both averted, offers the only antidote to fear. It also offers a transfer of sexual power from the Black body to the white man. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 172 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lynching made whiteness tangible by dissecting Black bodies — Sherene Razack, Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims…, 160; White fear produces eliminationist responses rather than addressing root conditions — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 240; Perceived racial threat drives zero-sum fears that justify defensive aggression — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 151 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Racial violence functions as a literal orgasm restoring white masculine mastery. #expands (1.00) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 172