What Is Mob Mentality?

One of the major causes individuals get caught up in mob mentality is because people feel pressured to execute the corrupt actions in order to be accepted in society. Mob mentality can trigger certain emotions to participate in terrible public events in which causes harm to others. In the 1920’s, a horrible incident occurred in Duluth Minnesota which will always be remembered in history.

Mob Mentality is strange behavior that is displayed when people are in a large group (Smith). People take part in these mobs because, when a group of people are emotional and angry about something, it takes very little for the crowd to break out in violence (Edmonds). In To Kill a Mockingbird mob mentality is apparent in the book. An example of mob mentality is, typically others will follow the initial rioter’s lead (Edmonds). This is shown in To Kill a Mockingbird when Scout guilts the mob into leaving and Mr. Cunningham tells the rest of the mob lets go and they follow right after him (Lee 206). Along with the Jim Crow laws and mob mentality another influence in To Kill a Mockingbird was the Scottsboro

This is shown through the article by cbs news titled Fear Factor: How Herd Mentality Drives Us when they state, “ It's the idea that the individual members of a herd relate, behave in a similar fashion… If they act too much out of the norm, more often than not they're singled out and identified by a predator - and don't survive very long.” It is also shown through Time machine (1905): An Eyewitness Account of Lynching, and through To Kill A Mockingbird. These show that people within a mob-mentality act differently than normal, come up with their own twisted form of justice, and can be seen as temporarily insane for a short period of time. Many people allowed for the mobs to occur and that ended badly. So, if you allow a mob to happen, you are allowing insanity to

The terror comes from how white supremacists tried altering the black gaze by making them not feel as they were not important enough. The way racist white people want to assert the black gaze is making them to get rid of all the slavery they had to go through and have the dominance over black people and their feelings. Whereas for black people they had to mask their feelings of torture for white people to not experience the discomfort they do. The only thing they seemed good for were being servants a seen in this quote, “Blacks I realized, were simply invisible to most white people, except as a pair of hands offering a drink on a silver tray” (quoted in hooks 340). The dominance of the black gaze caused black people to want to be invisible to white people because that made them feel safe in a way.

As reconstruction begin, many whites in the South seemed to ignore the fact that Blacks were no longer slaves. The Southern states created laws called ‘Black Codes’ that restricted the rights of the freed slaves. “Black codes were laws that were passed in each of the former confederate states following the civil war that applied only to black people.” (Hine, Darlene Clark, et al. 303) The laws highlighted that blacks have no right to vote in elections. However, after the troops were sent to the South, Blacks’ right to vote and involve in public office were secured. Many whites complained about the policy, and some of them created secret organization called Ku Klux Klan. This group tried everything including extreme and inhumane violence to

Black men were regularly terrorized, assaulted, and murdered for simply living as an “equal” to white men in the South. It didn’t take long for white supremacist terrorist hate groups to form in opposition to rights of black people, such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the Knights of the White Camellia, and Red Shirts. These groups went about terror in different ways; they targeted individuals and groups, murdering them in cold blood by the dozens (such as the Colfax Massacre), lynching them, and beating them half to death . Many former Confederates, such as the Gooding family, thought that the Ku Klux Klan was a “necessary organization,” which speaks volumes on how white people viewed black people having

While white women seek visibility as a means of being recognized by white men, white men seek visibility to further their political goals. What both have in common is the use of black men to amplify their visibility and expedite their success. The Brotherhood is an organization led by Brother Jack that entices the Invisible Man, recruits him, and takes advantage of his invisibility to spark a riot in the streets of Harlem. The Brotherhood takes advantage of his invisibility in multiple ways: the organization advises the Invisible Man during his speeches, the organization sends him across New York as it see fit, the organization gives him money, and the organization fuels his rise to fame and notoriety. These acts seem benevolent, but the intentions behind them were destructive and manipulative. The Brotherhood has a doctrine and all members are expected to abide by it. Individual action is frowned upon. The Invisible Man is thus, reduced to a token and through his invisibility, the Brotherhood amplifies its prevalence in Harlem and generally as an organization. Again, the black man is used and those who use him aren’t invested in him. The Invisible Man realizes this amidst the riots in Harlem: “And now I looked around a corner of my mind and saw Jack and Norton and Emerson merge into one single white figure. They were very much the same, each attempting to force his picture of reality upon me and neither giving a hoot in hell for how things looked to me” (508) and “It was

Jim Crow racism was the belief that whites are superior to non-whites. This idea generated rules of Jim Crow racism that mainly caused segregation between whites and non-whites. The segregation of restaurants, schools, and churches were because of the idea of Jim Crow racism. It was the social norm to wear black face and yell racial slurs at non-whites. Black face was worn by a white man with the man usually mocking people of color about their race and behavior, by yelling racial slurs. Black face was usually seen on television or theater. The oppression of non-whites was horrid because they faced various consequences when they broke a Jim Crow law, such as lynching or hanging. The use of Jim Crow racism has reduced over the past eighty

Lynching and Lynch mobs have been around Since the early 1800s and became popular and more active after the end of the civil war and implication of slaves in the south. Mobs would gather and voice their opinions about an african american individual and would drag him/her to a tree, telephone pole, post, etc whatever was most convenient at the time and would use a noose to hang them in front of everyone. These mobs were soon name lynch mobs for there actions. Many in the town would join in or gather around to watch and no one intervened or were hung as well. The worst part is the government stood by or even help because in the south this was a people's opinion against african americans.

Jim Crow Laws acted as a synthesis of social hatred and legality: they allowed white supremacists to dictate the lives of African Americans through the law.

According to Tamara Avant, "When people are part of a group, they often experience deindividuation, or a loss of self-awareness. " In the book Lord of the Flies mob mentality shows up many times throughout the book. In the interview Tamara describes that when people are in a big group, they loose the feeling of responsibility. This is obvious in Lord of the Flies also. In the book, the kids began not focusing on keeping the rescue fire burning and building huts as shelter. Instead, they would play in the water or they would go off hunting. The kids really began starting showing mob mentality when they would form tribes, paint their faces, and steal each other's fire. In the article Tamara explains that during Hurricane Katrina, if people didn't

Also, many people would not hold themselves accountable for violent behavior when part of a mob, because they perceive the action as the group’s doing, and thus don’t take any personal responsibility for it. With all this comes a total erasure of social inhibitions, as well as a total erasure of basic ethics and morals. These people seem to trade these things for what is supposed to be normal and

America’s history is full of groups of vigilantes set out to right the wrongs of society. A disturbing example of a very successful group of vigilantes is the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK was seen in numbers reaching the millions in the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The KKK can be identified as a group of vigilantes because they came about after the Civil War and the eradication of slavery. The founders of the KKK had the mindset of the vigilante because they believed in the superiority of the white race and thought it was justified to protect that superiority over blacks, Jews and other minorities. Although according to society’s standards the KKK were terrorists, racists and

Anywhere white supremacists assemble, a group of Antifa activists may be kept nearby. Antifa usually wear their trademark black attire. They obscure their identities. The Antifa strategy is what most may find unconventional. Antifa activists trust that fascism will and ought to be eliminated by any means necessary. Antifa activists have been known to use violence for combating white supremacists and protecting democracy. They believe violence is justifiable towards white supremacist after the horrible period of slavery and the holocaust. One Antifa activist asked the public if they remembered when the Jewish hid people in their walls to avoid them being captured by Nazis. He also asked if they remembered when Quakers hid runaway slaves in

Racism can be defined as, “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam-Webster, 2018). This means white supremacy is the belief that being white makes a person superior to any other race due to their racial differences. As radial and extreme as this sounds, unfortunately, there are individuals that exist with this mind set, at one point, this number was in the millions. The Ku Klux Klan is a white supremacist organization that focuses on bringing white Southern men back into power. (CBS Interactive Inc., 2018; Chalmers, 1987; Jones, 1921; Ku Klux Klan, LLC., n.d.; McFadden, Thompson, & Meyersohn, 2012; Sharpe, & Misirogula, 2009) This group consist of violent extremist who believe white Southerners are supreme because of their color and focuses on destroying anyone who does not fit, or does not support that mold (CBS Interactive