Cultural Definitions

Dear Ida B. Wells,

I found the way you were able to change the narrative around lynching into something that would make white Americans pay attention to it inventive and brave. You took on a cultural practice that had not been tackled for years, and changed the way people thought about masculinity. The tension between white southern ideals of masculinity and authority, and black ideals was a prevalent topic throughout your work and brought me to think about cultural differences among races. It reminded me of how black women were held to different standards then white women and different definitions of femininity.  I think it would be amazing to hear your thoughts on differing cultural definitions of things like temperament, personality traits, and other ideals that have different meaning especially among white individuals and black individuals.  Thank you for being brave and fighting to stop a inhumane and racist practice, and for encouraging so many to think about lynching and masculinity in American society.