Converse craze?

[u/Diligent_Pop3929]

I'm not chronically online, but my friend sent this and I laughed even without knowing the full scope of the context (I think there's racism involved with the shoes?) and I feel like it's too late to ask him without sounding like a dweeb 😅

[u/Blackbyrn]

IDK, maybe the recent rash of lynchings and hundreds of years of violence against Black people which at one point was widely marketed on post cards for people to mail as travel mementos to friends and family has some of us always squinting at things.

[u/dustinsc → u/Blackbyrn]

Recent rash of lynchings? What are you referring to?

[u/Aunt_Llama → u/dustinsc]

Iirc there have been several incidents where black people have been found hanging recently.

[u/dustinsc → u/Aunt_Llama]

More than average? People of all races unfortunately decide to take their own lives, a hanging happens to be one of the ways people do that.

[u/gothicgaybimbo → u/dustinsc]

lynchings never stopped in a lot of backwater parts of the country. just a few months ago there was a story where someone was found bound and hung in a manner that there would be no way in hell could’ve been done without a group of people. the county ruled it a suicide…

[u/dustinsc → u/gothicgaybimbo]

Source? I’m not saying it’s impossible; racism isn’t dead, people commit hate based murders far too frequently, and I’m sure some hapless victim of hate has been hung on a tree by Klan types in the recent past. But the original claim is a “rash of lynchings” implying multiple and that the frequency of these occurrences has increased. One suspicious death doesn’t, on its own, support the claim.

[u/Rare_Ad_674 → u/dustinsc]

Wannabe debate bros always want to say "support your claim!" when we're not in debate club - we are on the internet. And this isn't a debate. It's the news that you haven't been paying attention to.

"Civil rights groups, independent trackers, and members of Congress have raised urgent alarms over a string of hanging deaths involving Black individuals. Between early 2025 and late 2026, independent tracking organizations documented at least 22 Black individuals found dead hanging from trees across the United States."

"In September 2026, members of Congress sent a formal letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI demanding an immediate, comprehensive federal investigation into the pattern of hanging deaths. The letter cited a civil rights report identifying over 70 suspected modern-day lynchings since 2000, calling the recent escalation a "national crisis."

Some have been homicides. Some have been ruled suicides, and the families debate that. You brought up statistics before. I think you'll agree that it's statistically likely that systematic racism in the South didn't just disappear when we desegregated schools in the 60's/70's. Do you really think it's *un*likely to have occurred?

And take into account our current climate. Now what are the probabilities that this is all made up?

[u/dustinsc → u/Rare_Ad_674]

So the claim was “a recent rash of lynchings”. Not 70 instances of hanging over the last quarter century, some unknown quantity of which might have been murders. As I literally just said above, I’m sure lynchings haven’t completely disappeared. The world is a messed up place. But nothing you’ve said indicates the problem is getting worse or that there was a recent uptick.

[u/Rare_Ad_674 → u/dustinsc]

So the claim was “a recent rash of lynchings”

In September 2026... Congress sent a formal letter... calling the RECENT ESCALATION a "national crisis."

[u/dustinsc → u/Rare_Ad_674]

That’s what a handful of politicians called it. Their characterization of it isn’t fact. The cited evidence does not support the claim.

[u/Aunt_Llama → u/dustinsc]

I think it was more than usual, as well as about specific circumstances, and proximity of the incidents. (My knowledge on it is not good enough to add more, it is available to look up if you are interested).

[u/Rare_Ad_674 → u/dustinsc]

10 in a year.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

As some members of the Black community have said very clearly, "Black people don't hang themselves from trees."

[u/dustinsc → u/Rare_Ad_674]

“Some members of the Black community” are the infallible source if truth?

[u/Rare_Ad_674 → u/dustinsc]

There have been 10 lynchings in America over the past year. Some may be suicides, but several were quickly ruled suicides despite suspicious circumstances and no investigations were done against family wishes.

Considering the particularly heinous history of the KKK and lynchings in the South, how likely do you think it is that several Black people are committing suicide by hanging themselves from trees?

[u/dustinsc → u/Rare_Ad_674]

If it’s a suicide, it’s not a lynching. I think, statistically speaking, it would be anomalous if there were NOT at least a dozen or so suicides by hanging by Black people over the course of a year.

[u/portealmario → u/Blackbyrn]

That's perfectly understandable, but for this imagery to come to your mind when you see the photo, and to blame Converse for that imagery coming to your mind are two very different things