Black Americans say white vigilantism played a role in Jordan Neely’s homicide

Curtis Bunn, NBCBLK

“It reignites the terror in the souls of Black folks when we witness these killings of our people without trial, without jury, without adjudication,” one psychologist said.

In the moments before New York City subway entertainer Jordan Neely was killed on an F train in lower Manhattan in the middle of the day, a witness said he had been yelling, asking for food and saying that he didn’t care if he went to jail. A 24-year-old man from Queens, whose identity has not yet been verified, came up from behind him and put him in a chokehold for several minutes until Neely died.

For Donald Grant, a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles, the deadly act represents a white vigilantism that has become an ever-present threat to Black Americans, manifested in the killings of many men and women whose names have made up headlines and hashtags over decades. 

“It reignites the terror in the souls of Black folks when we witness these killings of our people without trial, without jury, without adjudication,” said Grant, author of the book “White on White Crime: Old Lies in Contemporary Times.”

“This vigilante activity is really a reminder of the dangerous conditions that Black Americans exist in now,” he added.

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Black communities have been terrorized by lynchings for hundreds of years.

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