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As a law student in 2004, I studied the anatomy of one of America鈥檚 most brutal inventions: the lynching. I also studied the Black people who led the fight against this form of racial terrorism, specifically Black women such as and . By doing so, I felt intimately connected to my ancestors鈥攖hese impressive social justice crusaders, as well as the men in my family. In 1933, my father was a nine-year-old boy when Marylander George Armwood was brutally tortured and executed before crowds of people. It is a story I belatedly learned from him because it had been buried so deep in his psyche.

In more recent years, thanks largely to the Equal Justice Initiative鈥檚 , lynching has become a bigger part of our national conversation. We now know its geography and have a of its numbers. We can even see soil samples from communities where these brutalities occurred. And just as they existed back then, there are the naysayers, those that say, 鈥渓et history lie.鈥� Those that say, 鈥淲hat is past is past. Why wake the dead?鈥�

I would tell them that after looking at headlines in this country from just the past couple of weeks, we are in desperate need of this dialogue, as well as the that have gradually begun to populate the places where lynchings have occurred. Because despite this belated recognition of America鈥檚 history of domestic extremism and racial violence, we are living in a country that is as emboldened as ever to harm Black Americans. We are living in the very 鈥淎merican carnage鈥� that Trump predicted in his disturbing inaugural address six years ago.

This is the America I see right now:

I see an America where Mississippi police officers, members of the so-called 鈥淕oon Squad,鈥� must be held to account for the torture of two Black men living on the 鈥渨rong side鈥� of the river. of this attack, as well as its motivating factor鈥攔esiding with a white woman鈥攁re if nothing else an attempted lynching.

I see an America where a best-selling single by a white country artist glorifies the type of vigilante violence that small-town mobs have long waged against Black residents: 鈥淭ry that in a small town/ Full of good ol鈥� boys, raised up right/ If you鈥檙e looking for a fight.鈥� The song鈥檚 music video even features imagery of Columbia, Tennessee鈥檚 , the site of Henry Choate鈥檚 lynching after he was falsely accused of assaulting a white sixteen-year-old girl.

I see an America where two Black women, and , are hounded by the most vile, racist threats for their roles in unfolding Trump prosecutions; and where Trump circulates an image on social media appearing to threaten with a baseball bat, while promising imminent 鈥渄eath and destruction.鈥�

I see an America where white boaters incite a riot against a for daring to ask them for close to an hour to move their pontoon. While in this last instance, the co-captain was defended by Black onlookers to the incident, what could have happened to this man on the very land where his enslaved ancestors perhaps arrived South by steamboat should shake us all to our core.

These examples all have one thing in common: the notion that there is an audacity on the part of Black Americans to live, to be, and to do their jobs. That there is an audacity on the part of Black Americans to occupy certain spaces鈥攁n audacity that must be checked at all costs.

I call this Trump鈥檚 America, not because he is the origin of America鈥檚 violent racial history, but rather because he is its gleeful instigator and its cheerleader-in-chief. observes, 鈥淒onald Trump didn鈥檛 invent these darker impulses. They were preexisting conditions, but he found a way to tap into them and bring them out.鈥� From his Obama birther conspiracy, to his continuous , Trump has sought ways to delegitimize and denigrate Black people from the moment he stepped onto the national stage.

He鈥檚 continued to embolden and inflame our citizenry, including through the loathsome embrace of the white nationalists responsible for Charlottesville, and his campaign of intimidation, harassment, and defamation of black poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. What Trump has accomplished鈥攈is major win鈥攊s bringing the extremism that has long lived 鈥渦nder the rock of American history,鈥� as Jelani Cobb puts it, and into the mainstream dialogue of American politics. It is no coincidence that in recent years the country has witnessed a surge in hate crimes, including, as , against 鈥淏lack and African-Americans, already the group most victimized.鈥�

While Black people are certainly not the sole target of Trump鈥檚 rhetoric and the abuse of like-minded mobs, we are one of the greatest tests of the functioning of American democracy. Without us, who were once considered chattel rather than citizens, it is impossible for the country to achieve its more perfect union. If our bodies are battered, if our humanity is denied, this American life cannot possibly survive.

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