In mid-August of 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley put her happy-go-lucky fourteen-year-old son Emmett “BoBo” Till on train headed south from their Chicago home. She never saw her son alive again. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:30 am in the morning of August 28 in backwater Mississippi, angry armed white men invaded the home of the black preacher hosting Emmett Till, grabbed the boy and took him away.
Days later, Emmett’s lifeless body was found bloated and disfigured in the Tallahatchie River.
What did Emmett do to deserve a lynching? The film claims it was a wolf whistle and little more. The events are disputed. What’s pretty indisputable, however, is that Emmett was 14 -which makes the murder horrible by itself, and the fact that NOBODY ever deserves to be lynched no matter what they do … and that includes those who do the lynching.
Till is not about Emmett (Jalyn Hall), really, nor even about the lynching. This film is the story of Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler), the devoted single mother of Emmett Till. She is the face of a story about transformation from joy to grief to defiance. This was likely a decision made by writer/director Chinonye Chukwu and not a bad one. Lynching is about relegating a victim to subhuman status. The bloated corpse of Emmett only served to reinforce that idea. Mamie gives humanity to this evil. The film wants you to know, always, the monsters that did this attacked not only a person with thoughts and feelings and dreams and joys, but the mother who raised him as well.
While the decision to tell the story completely from Mamie’s POV had the effect of giving a human face to the actions of monsters, it also, unfortunately, had the effect of giving the film a bit of a one-note feel. I love that we never quite meet the monsters of this crime. And they are monsters, pure and simple. When I think about what happened, the whistled-at Carolyn Bryant comes to mind. Given who she was and where she existed in
time and space, she was untouchable. No black man would ever dare show her anything but subservience. It 1955 Mississippi, she could surround herself with black men 24/7 and breathe easy knowing not a single one would ever dare touch her or even look her in the eye if she wished otherwise. Carolyn had three full days to ponder her interaction with 14-year-old Emmett. And after some 80 hours, she decided “he must die” and sent her goons to do the dirty work.
That is a monster. That is the disposition of monster. Those are the actions of a monster.
We don’t meet the monsters. We only really meet Mamie.
And the film asks again and again in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, could this lynching happen again today?
Of course it could.
When a populace equates Trump with divinity, or falls for the big lie, or exonerates members who assaulted the capitol on January 6, lynching isn’t actually that large a step beyond. We already see it in different forms, like a stupid white kid arming himself for a BLM rally or a cop kneeling on the neck of a “bad guy” for nine straight minutes. Americans, almost all Americans for that matter, have concluded that violence solves problems. Hence, all that it takes to get from there to lynching is 1) behavioral justification and 2) a reasonable belief you won’t be held accountable. I believe #2 is the only reason lynchings haven’t continued steadily since the 1950s. The men in the hoods might actually be held *gasp* accountable! So instead of lynching, they take to forums and activities where they can’t be held accountable, let internet chat boards.
The saddest part of all of this remains the fact that we as Americans aren’t nearly as different from 1955 as we like to imagine. Let’s explore the scenario by which several white supremacists lynch a black man in 2022. First off, the press has to let America know what happened. It’s a good bet that several RW sources won’t even cover such news. Most of the major outlets would report the facts of the tragedy. Fox News, however, would be decidedly brief on relevant facts and immediately get to the punditry which will distort what happened before either blaming the victim or Democrats. When called to account for lying, Fox will be hilariously silent. The news cycle will not last. This isn’t 1955, where the murder of a 14-year-old motivated by racism might be in the newspaper again and again and again and again. In 2022, Trump’s continued lawlessness and defiance of accountability dominates all news cycles. If he committed treason, again, there’s a good chance the lynching wouldn’t even be the top story of the day. It probably wouldn’t last a week in the news. In our time, there is always a new tragedy.
At this point, several RW figures, including politicians, would make money off misinformation about the attack. It would involve fearmongering and lies, but make no mistake, a bunch of fascist assholes would successfully fundraise off painting the news about the actions of a racist monster as partisan politics.
And here’s the kicker: at the end of the day, more than 50 million Americans, and I’d estimate as many as 100 million, would be OK with the lynching. People who might even call themselves “good people” would make excuses or say “he had it comin’ “ or offer some other ridiculous and disingenuous defense. If they’re good with Trump and fascism, you think a lynching is going to make the American RW think twice? HA! Tell me … explain this to me like I am five years old … even if you think Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, what makes him a “hero?” Please explain. I don’t get it. And I don’t think I ever will.
Our national legacy is violence. We think it solves problems. In Mississippi of 1955, Emmett Till was just another problem to solve.
There once was a youngster named Till
Whose demise would make your spine chill
Because of racism, you see
His murderers went free
Do with that what you will
Rated PG-13, 130 Minutes
Director: Chinonye Chukwu
Writer: Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp, Chinonye Chukwu
Genre: The South we pretend doesn’t exist any longer
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: SJW
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Racists
