OPINION: We live in a time when racial vigilantism is offered once again to eliminate Black lives. Some white people believe taking Black life is acceptable when Black people make them feel uncomfortable.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Jordan Neely, an unhoused, young Black man living with trauma and mental health challenges, was lynched on a New York subway because he was hungry, thirsty and in need. And his killer, white subway rider Daniel Penny, is a hero to a segment of white society, including white nationalists in the Republican Party.

This week, as we mark the third anniversary of the lynching of George Floyd — who was killed by a cop who kneeled on his neck three years ago — we are reminded that when a Black man is lynched, it brings a sense of relief to white folks who feel discomfort at the sight of Blackness and being in the presence of marginalized Black people. And the lynching of Black people, whether by police or vigilantes, is acceptable in a nation that always normalized anti-Black violence and has a particular appetite for that taking of Black life right now.

And since George Floyd, things are getting worse, not better.

Penny has enjoyed support from 2024 GOP presidential hopefuls, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, who donated $10,000 to the man’s legal defense fund, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called for New York’s Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Penny. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the country should show that “America

’s got his back.”

A GoFundMe set up for Penny’s legal defense has raised over $2 million, far more than the $150,000 the family of Jordan Neely has raised.

Daniel Penny is a reminder of Bernhard Goetz, who shot four Black teenagers in the New York City subway in 1984; George Zimmerman, the self-appointed neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin in 2012 and gave birth to #BlackLivesMatter; and more importantly, Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty by reason of self-defense in the killing of two Black Lives Matter activists and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wisc., in August 2020.

Like Rittenhouse, Penny has become a hero for white nationalists, domestic terrorists and Republican Party operatives who hope to kill Black people, Black activists and allies without facing consequences. Today, Republican-controlled states enact “stand your ground laws” that enable white people who feel threatened to shoot to kill Black people, and even laws that greenlight those who run over and kill political protesters.

Source: Jordan Neely’s death reminds us of the lynching atmosphere that still exists for Black people