And you are lynching Negroes: Difference between revisions

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"And you are lynching Negroes" (Russian: "А у вас негров линчуют", A u vas negrov linchuyut, "And at your place, they are lynching Negroes") and the later "And you are hanging blacks" (Russian: "А у вас негров вешают") are anecdotal counter-argument catchphrases, which epitomize the tu quoque arguments,^[1][2] used by the Soviet Union in response to assertions it violated human rights.^[3][4] Use of the phrase refers to such attempts to deflect criticism, by referencing racial discrimination and lynching in the United States.^[5]

The Soviet media frequently covered stories of racial discrimination in the west, as well as reporting on the impacts of unemployment and financial crises, which were seen as inherent problems of the capitalist system that had been erased by the strict egalitarianism of the Communist system.^[6] The history of lynchings of African Americans was thus seen as an embarrassing skeleton in the closet for the US which the Soviets frequently used as a stock form of defensive rhetorical ammunition whenever they were reproached for the perceived failings of the Soviet system, such as an inferior industrial and agricultural production, human rights abuses and the relatively low standard of living for workers, compared to their western counterparts.^[7]

The use of the phrase as a reference to demagoguery and hypocrisy is traced to a Russian political joke, about a dispute between an American and a Soviet man.^[8] Dmitri Moor produced "Freedom to the prisoners of Scottsboro!" in following the 1931 attempted lynching of the Scottsboro Boys of Alabama.^[1] This popularized the phrase in usage by the Soviet Union against the U.S., as a form of criticism against those who themselves criticized human rights abuses.^[1] Subsequently when the Soviet Union faced harsh words from the Western world over its civil liberties problems, it employed the phrase as a common retort.^[9] During the Joseph Stalin period compliments of quality of living in the U.S. received a reply of the rejoinder.^[10][11] During the Stalin era the term worked its way into fiction produced in the country, and was seen in this context as criticism of foreigners.^[12] Years later a science fiction comic, Technique - The Youth. - 1948. - № 2 titled "In a world of crazy fantasy" (Russian: "В мире бредовой фантастики") featured a poem of political attacks on the cover which included a similar line Russian: "Линчуют негров всех планет", "Every planet's Negroes are being lynched there".^[13] Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov wrote in his 1953 book The Reign of Stalin, that Soviet media put forth the notion that U.S. citizens: "are unanimous in pursuing an anti-colour policy, and that the average American spends his time lynching negroes."^[14]

Use of the phrase as a tu quoque discourse grew in popularity in Russia during the 1960s, and was used as a widespread quip between Russians.^[2] In this version, an American and a Soviet car salesman argue which country makes better cars. Finally, the American asks: "How many decades does it take an average Soviet man to earn enough money to buy a Soviet car?" After a thoughtful pause, the Soviet replies: "And you are lynching Negroes!"^[2][15][16] The phrase garnered numerous iterations during the Cold War period.^[16] Its pervasiveness in Russian society reflected a strong sense of Soviet socialist patriotism.^[17] After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the term had become a synecdoche as a reference referring to all of Soviet propaganda.^[18] By 2015 the phrase had entered common lexicon in Russia as a tool to criticize any form of U.S. policy.^[19] Russians used the term between themselves so often it became a form of satire, as a ubiquitous rejoinder to all crises dealt with and low quality of life, including purchasing groceries or dealing with road congestion.^[20][21]

Similar phrases are used in languages of Europe, in different variants.

• Czech: A vy zase bijete černochy! ("And, in turn, you beat up blacks!") ^[22]
• Hungarian: Amerikában (pedig) verik a négereket ("And in America, they beat up Negroes")^[23]
• Polish: A u was Murzynów biją! ("And at your place, they beat up Negroes!")^[24]
• Romanian: Da, dar voi linșați negrii! ("Yes, but you are lynching Negroes!")^[25]

The Economist popularized the term whataboutism in a 2008 article, for the repeated usage of this rhetorical tactic by the Soviet Union.^[18] The magazine wrote that the tactic became overused, and by the time of the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, it had become a figure of speech referring to the entirety of Soviet propaganda.^[18] The book Exit from Communism made a similar point, that the term encapsulated an overall divorce from reality: "Perhaps there are and perhaps there are not prison camps in Siberia, perhaps in the United States they do or perhaps they do not lynch blacks ... Ultimately it does not matter whether we are for real or just pretending: it is all just part of the story."^[26] With the election of Barack Obama as U.S. President in 2008, The New York Times reported that the tactic could see decreased usage: "In Russia, for example, where Soviet leaders used to respond to any American criticism of human rights violation with 'But you hang Negroes,' analysts note that the election of Mr. Obama removes a stain."^[27][28] Journalist George Feifer recounted in a 2009 article how when he traveled to Moscow in 1959 to cover the American National Exhibition, he faced those using the phrase against him.^[29] Feifer wrote: "Skilled propagandists stationed among the listeners regularly interrupted to repeat questions intended to discredit me. Why did America tolerate shameful poverty and lynch Negroes?"^[29] In 2011, author Michael Dobson wrote that the phrase was a form of the pot calling the kettle black, and a "famous example" of the tu quoque reasoning derived from a "famous 1960s era Russian joke".^[2]

During the Ferguson unrest in 2014, which resulted in Ferguson, Missouri after a white policeman who shot and killed an unarmed black adolescent was not indicted, state-controlled press coverage in Russia was highly critical of racism in the United States.^[6] Writing for The Moscow Times, journalist Allison Quinn posited that coverage of the protests in Ferguson served as an optimal method to distract media from the Ukrainian crisis.^[6] Quinn noted: "American racism provided a go-to argument of American hypocrisy for years under the Soviet Union, with phrases like 'Well, you lynch negroes' hurled back at the U.S. in response to any allegations of human rights violations in the Soviet Union."^[6] She compared the Ferguson unrest coverage by Russia state-controlled media to prior use of this phrase as a form of Soviet propaganda.^[6] Writing for The New Republic during the Ukrainian crisis, Julia Ioffe made a similar comparison as Quinn with regards to Soviet versus 2014 use of the technique.^[4] Ioffe wrote that the phrase took the form of a "cartoonish reply", and had been extended after the fall of Soviet Russia to a simillar strategy used by Vladimir Putin.^[4]

In a 2015 article for National Review, Kevin D. Williamson called the phrase "a bitter Soviet-era punch line".^[16] Williamson pointed out: "There were a million Cold War variations on the joke".^[16] Daniel Greenfield wrote for FrontPage Magazine in 2015, that the phrase was a "classic staple of Soviet propaganda".^[30] Greenfield wrote that over time, the phrase lost its meaning after being worn out through repetition: "There's a reason, 'And you are lynching Negroes' became a cliche, a sign of how bankrupt and dishonest Soviet propagandists were.^[30] David Volodzko wrote for The Diplomat in 2015 about: "the famous tu quoque argument ... and you are lynching Negroes".^[1] The piece noted the term was used as a way to criticize capitalism as practiced in the Western world.^[1] Writing for Open Democracy in 2015, Maxim Edwards observed: "The phrase 'and you are lynching Negroes' has entered Russian speech as a prime example of whataboutism, a hypothetical response to any American criticism of Soviet policies."^[19]

Catherine Putz commented on the phrase in a 2016 article for the The Diplomat, and compared it to use of whataboutism by Donald Trump: "Criticisms of human rights in the Soviet Union were often met with what became a common catchphrase: 'And you are lynching Negroes.'"^[31] She pointed out the folly of its use: "It demands, by default, for a state to argue abroad only in favor of ideals it has achieved the highest perfection in."^[31] Writing for Haaretz journalist Chemi Shalev made a similar comparison: "Trump told the New York Times this week that America is in such a mess in terms in terms of civil liberties that it cannot lecture foreign countries any more, which is an echo of old Soviet propaganda that responded to American reprimands with the retort 'And you are lynching Negroes'."^[32] Shalev followed-up on this analysis in a subsequent article, writing: "Trump conducts pro-Russian propaganda along the same lines as the old retort 'And You Hang Blacks' with which the Soviets tried to deflect U.S. criticism of their human rights abuses. He isn’t troubled by Putin’s political opponents being murdered, because 'people get killed here too.'"^[33] Writing for ChinaFile after Trump won the 2016 U.S. election, James Palmer feared increase in racism "would give a brutal new credibility to the old Soviet whataboutism whenever they were challenged on the gulag: 'But in America, you lynch Negroes.'"^[34]

• The pot calling the kettle black
• The Mote and the Beam
• Physician, heal thyself
• Jesus and the woman taken in adultery

• Ambrosio, Thomas (2009), "Tu Quoque", Authoritarian Backlash: Russian Resistance to Democratization in the Former Soviet Union, Post-Soviet Politics, Routledge, p. 85, ISBN 978-0754673507