The Brute

The message displayed through this image is that black men are a severe threat to white women. They are trying to depict that black men have no self-control and lack the empathy to not harm someone. The brute is seen as a sociopathic anti-social menace. George T. Winston, a writer in "Negrophobic" claimed "When a knock is heard at the door [a White woman] shudders with nameless horror. The black brute is lurking in the dark, a monstrous beast, crazed with lust. His ferocity is almost demoniacal. A mad bull or tiger could scarcely be more brutal. A whole community is frenzied with horror, with the blind and furious rage for vengeance"(pp. 108-109). This caricature was developed after slavery by those trying to in a sense justify it. They would say that slavery suppressed these animalistic tendencies. They associated the brute with the "worst crime of all" rape of a white woman by a black man. This rationalization made a justification for lynchings.