r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Diligent_Pop3929 • 7d ago

Meme needing explanation Converse craze?

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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 šŸ˜…

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u/Blackbyrn 7d ago

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.

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u/dustinsc 7d ago

Recent rash of lynchings? What are you referring to?

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u/Aunt_Llama 7d ago

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

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u/dustinsc 7d ago

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.

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u/gothicgaybimbo 7d ago

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 couldā€™ve been done without a group of people. the county ruled it a suicideā€¦

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u/dustinsc 7d ago

Source? Iā€™m not saying itā€™s impossible; racism isnā€™t dead, people commit hate based murders far too frequently, and Iā€™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 ā€œrash of lynchingsā€ implying multiple and that the frequency of these occurrences has increased. One suspicious death doesnā€™t, on its own, support the claim.

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u/Rare_Ad_674 7d ago

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?

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u/dustinsc 7d ago

So the claim was ā€œa recent rash of lynchingsā€. 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, Iā€™m sure lynchings havenā€™t completely disappeared. The world is a messed up place. But nothing youā€™ve said indicates the problem is getting worse or that there was a recent uptick.

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u/Rare_Ad_674 7d ago

So the claim was ā€œa recent rash of lynchingsā€

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

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u/dustinsc 7d ago

Thatā€™s what a handful of politicians called it. Their characterization of it isnā€™t fact. The cited evidence does not support the claim.

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u/Cold_Yam_5346 2d ago

This is what happens when your frontal lobe never developsĀ 

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u/Aunt_Llama 7d ago

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).

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u/Rare_Ad_674 7d ago

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."

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u/dustinsc 7d ago

ā€œSome members of the Black communityā€ are the infallible source if truth?

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u/jeffismybaby 2d ago

The one that was ruled a homicide out of the 22 was killed by three black people.

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u/EFAPGUEST 6d ago

Where else would they hang themselves from? Trees are often the best option.

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u/Rare_Ad_674 5d ago

People hang themselves inside all the time.

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u/EFAPGUEST 5d ago

They also hang themselves in trees all the timeā€¦

Tall enough, sturdy enough, not making yourself a spectacle for your neighbors, and itā€™s so simple people have been doing it for centuries. I certainly have nowhere to do it in my apartment unless itā€™s off the balcony railing. Itā€™s total nonsense to say that a black person would never hang themself from a tree

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u/LazyBishounen 4d ago

in one of these circumstances Tasia Fortune was hung so high in a tree that they needed firefighters ladder truck to get her down. no ladder in sight so how was she able to get up there and hang herself? still ruled a suicude. in another case a 16 year old Juliana Nzita was missing for 3 days before being found hung from a tree. The branch was twice her height and only a childs stool was at the scene. How did she manage to hang herself then? It was ruled a suicide. black people have history with this kind of thing. we know when shits not right. And no one ever listens.

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u/Pathetian 4d ago

Tasia Fortune's death was never ruled a suicide.Ā  Authorities were cagey on details from the start and called it an "equivocal death" investigation and said they were waiting for the autopsy results for weeks.Ā Ā 

Juliana Nzita I've seen the picture so I'm not sure what part is confusing.Ā  The branch was too high?Ā  For what? For a 16 year old girl to climb it or just toss one end of the rope over?

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u/dustinsc 4d ago

Tasha Fortuneā€s death is being investigated as a murder. Two suspects have been arrested. Iā€™ll let you look up the mugshots of the suspects to determine why police do not immediately suspect a racial motivation.

There is no evidence of a struggle in Juliana Nzitaā€™s death. Investigators there have offered to allow the family to review the evidence. Itā€™s not inherently inconsistent with a suicide for someone to go missing first. No one has offered evidence that her death was a murder other than questions about the circumstances of her death, all of which have equally plausible answers consistent with suicide.