"[I]n the face of the evidence we have so far, and given the incendiary nature of the claim, why would anyone say that the United States is experiencing a 'national crisis' of lynchings?"

"One reason is a stylized wariness that Black Americans are often taught as a kind of wisdom — to be ever on guard that the bad old days could return at any moment. Another reason is a belief that Black people don’t hang themselves because of the fraught historical associations with the act. 'It is very uncommon for young Black men to commit suicide, let alone by hanging,' Raymond Winbush, a psychologist who has treated hundreds of Black men and boys, told The Washington Post. 'That’s not the way we do' is how Black Americans often put it in conversation. But we must ask, with all due compassion: Suppose it is?"

Writes John McWhorter, in "Are Lynchings Really Happening?" (NYT).