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Summary Of Blood Done Signed My Name

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Before we begin to dive into the crimes that occurred in the book, Blood Done Signed My Name, we must first ask the question, what is crime? According to Michael Lynch, crime can be defined as “exactly what the law states” (Lynch 2015). Like anything else a strict definition like this can have both positive and negatives associated with it. With using such a strict definition of crime it allows people to have no room to try and get around it. If we use a loose interpretation then it allows for people to use said definition on more of a case by case period. Using such a strict definition shows us exactly what crime is and how there is no wiggle room there, and leaves no room for debate. While there are positives to using a strict definition, …show more content…

Henry Morrow was an African American male who said something to a white women, and because of that Robert Teel felt he had to stand up for her because he thought Morrow should not be talking to her. The altercation arose and because of that Morrow was eventually shot and killed by Teel. This can be considered one of the grey areas of that definition of crime used above. While the murder of Morrow was obviously an example of crime, what happened before that can be interpreted different ways. While it was not illegal for an African American to talk to a white women, it was considered so wrong to do within the society it was almost like an unwritten law. This killing just reiterated the fact that there was a clear difference in the two groups. It showed that they were in fact not going to be treated equally, and that they had no intentions of changing that anytime soon. This murder just paved the way for the whites to treat the African Americans however they wanted to, which would lead to several more racially motivated crimes to occur. Another of example of crime in the book is the burning down of businesses. This started from the unrest that was started when the businesses of the whites were being challenged by the success of the African American …show more content…

The best explanation of both crimes is the fact that they were victimized based on the color of their skin. If Morrow had been white then there will be no problem between him and Teel, and even if there was, the conflict would not have been near as bad, and he would have not been killed. If the roles in this situation had been reversed then none of this would have happened. If a white man talked to an African American women like this then there would have never been a problem. This is because the social norm that was there insisted that there should be no physical interaction between white women and African American male. When the businesses were being burned down, they only targeted the businesses of the African American community. They did not burn down the other businesses ran by whites that were challenging their success. They did not challenge the businesses of the whites because that is not who they had put the blame on, they had victimized the African Americans simply because of their skin

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