While Ida B Wells touches on the inequalities of the sexes she is arguing much stronger for equality of the races. She discusses the rights of a white woman versus a black woman to show this. "If a white woman declares herself insulted or assaulted, some life must pay the penalty, with all the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition and all the barbarism of the Middle Ages." Wells is referring to a black person when saying "some life" and she uses two other past less civilized time periods as her example to condescendingly describe the current state.
Later in her article Ida B Wells talks about the rights of black women saying, "What becomes a crime deserving capital punishment when the tables are turned is a matter of small moment when the negro woman is the accusing...But since the world has accepted this false and unjust statement, and the burden of proof has been placed upon the negro to vindicate his race, he is taking steps to do so." She refers to this "burden of proof" as being placed on the negro to vindicate his race, implying that negros are already guilty before they even stand a fair chance.
I believe this also eludes to Wells' article Lynch Law in America. It carries the same tone, but more importantly the undertones in each are screaming out for justice. She describes the severity of the punishment for minor crimes committed by blacks, while the same and worse crimes within the white community come with a mere slap on the wrist. When even a crime is in question there is no justice for those non-whites; they are guilty without question, and thus condemned at birth to walk a careful line to simply survive. This is the "burden of proof" known, at the time, to all blacks across America.
ReplyDeleteIda B. Wells does a fantastic job of effectively conveying the injustice of lynching, as well as the racial inequality that was very prominent during her time. She uses appeals to pathos by describing lynchings that were particularly unfair and horrible. For example, she writes that a father, named Hastings, "was accused of the murder of a white man. His fourteen-year-old daughter and sixteen-year-old son were hanged and their bodies filled with bullets; then the father was also lynched." This is only one example, but it shows the injustice of lynching to the fullest. Also, Wells makes an appeal to logos, because she includes statistics and facts regarding the laws for lynching in each state, and the lack thereof. She has definitely done her research, and it makes her argument extremely effective. Another thing Wells does very well is that she incorporates the problem of "unwritten law" and "silence" that are allowing lynchings to occur. Thus, not only is she criticizing the lynchers themselves, but also the citizens that turn a blind eye and do nothing about the lynchings that are occurring left and right. She is also criticizing the government and legislatures of states for ignoring the fact that lynchings are happening and no one is doing anything to rectify it.
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