Salem, Massachusetts, has an infamous past. Numerous accusations of witchcraft resulted in deaths of 25 innocent people accused of consorting with the devil. Arthur Miller dramatized the events of 1692-93 in The Crucible, a play that is required reading in many high schools, making that brief segment of American history available to those who paid attention in class or read through the Spark Notes. One might think that since 1711, when the Salem community voted to restore the good names of the accused and especially since 1957, when Massachusetts formally apologized for the hangings, that the Salem story is just history. But, in fact, Salem is an ongoing story. In 2017 Zambian police arrested four “witch hunters” and charged them with murder. Eight years earlier people in Papua New Guinea burned to death a girl, a father, and his son, all accused of practicing witchcraft. A little research uncovers more such twenty-first century stories, including those of Nigerian “witches.” Yes, Salem lives on. And in the United States, where Salem lies, such destructive lies about others persist.
Although there are still places where the cry “Witch, Witch!” drives people to ostracize and murder their neighbors, the accusation has multiple variations, all of them causing hardship and harm. In the United States, the word witch has been replaced in recent times by racist and a number of words that end in -phobe (xenophobe, for example). Whether or not the accused is racist or phobic is irrelevant. What matters, as it mattered in 1692, is the accusation. Once out, it becomes a reality. And that new reality drives paranoia and subsequent injustice.
When the President of the United States labels an entire group of citizens terrorists, extremists, threats, racists, and Nazis, he sets in motion a process that is no different from what occurred in Salem. Truth and specificity never guide those who stereotype. Rational engagement dies with accusations of witchcraft in any of its supposed spectral manifestations. Today, just wearing a MAGA hat has led to abusive reactions by a paranoid public, reactions that have ranged from verbal to physical attacks on the accused. Is the American President alone in his paranoia? According to National Geographic online, “President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia believes he is being targeted by witches. According to Amnesty International, as many as 1,000 Gambians accused of witchcraft have been arrested and tortured on orders from the president.” *
“Can’t happen here,” you say, even though videos are readily available showing the American version of TV personalities crying “witch”—i.e. “racist.” Is the American president different from The Gambia’s president? “How dare you ask?” you inquire. This is America; we don’t arrest and torture here. We don’t burn people at the stake.
But do we ruin their names? Do we send the IRS in for an audit or to punish as seems to have happened under Lois Lerner and other government agents? Do we send in the FBI over political disagreements? Remember that chief among the reparations made to the victims of the Salem Witch Trials was the restoration of names, that is, the restoration of reputations. In an age of widespread social media, how does one restore a ruined reputation? Once out, the accusation becomes the reputation, and the subsequent condemnation it elicits entrenches itself like a World War I soldier at the Front.
Those who bear false witness are chief among hypocrites, and the only way to stop the injustice they perpetrate seems to lie in counter accusations, a process that helped to end those Salem witch trials so long ago. In Massachusetts, Governor Phipps stopped the arrests for witchcraft and terminated the trials after his own wife was questioned by the witch hunters.
Will the false accusations ever stop? Probably not. Statista online ** documents that 21% of Americans believe in spells and witchcraft. I do not know how many Americans believe that those who favor small and unobtrusive government are “a threat to democracy” as the President has stated, but it is not unreasonable to assume they number in the millions. Salem of 1692 has re-emerged in this century, and all Americans now belong to a community of paranoid neighbors primed to cast accusations.
*National Geographic Resource Library. Witch Trials in the 21st Century: Accusations of witchcraft persist. Online at https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/witch-trials-21st-century/. Accessed September 21, 2022.
**https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272243/belief-in-spells-or-witchcraft-in-the-united-states/ Accessed September 21, 2022.
Although there are still places where the cry “Witch, Witch!” drives people to ostracize and murder their neighbors, the accusation has multiple variations, all of them causing hardship and harm. In the United States, the word witch has been replaced in recent times by racist and a number of words that end in -phobe (xenophobe, for example). Whether or not the accused is racist or phobic is irrelevant. What matters, as it mattered in 1692, is the accusation. Once out, it becomes a reality. And that new reality drives paranoia and subsequent injustice.
When the President of the United States labels an entire group of citizens terrorists, extremists, threats, racists, and Nazis, he sets in motion a process that is no different from what occurred in Salem. Truth and specificity never guide those who stereotype. Rational engagement dies with accusations of witchcraft in any of its supposed spectral manifestations. Today, just wearing a MAGA hat has led to abusive reactions by a paranoid public, reactions that have ranged from verbal to physical attacks on the accused. Is the American President alone in his paranoia? According to National Geographic online, “President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia believes he is being targeted by witches. According to Amnesty International, as many as 1,000 Gambians accused of witchcraft have been arrested and tortured on orders from the president.” *
“Can’t happen here,” you say, even though videos are readily available showing the American version of TV personalities crying “witch”—i.e. “racist.” Is the American president different from The Gambia’s president? “How dare you ask?” you inquire. This is America; we don’t arrest and torture here. We don’t burn people at the stake.
But do we ruin their names? Do we send the IRS in for an audit or to punish as seems to have happened under Lois Lerner and other government agents? Do we send in the FBI over political disagreements? Remember that chief among the reparations made to the victims of the Salem Witch Trials was the restoration of names, that is, the restoration of reputations. In an age of widespread social media, how does one restore a ruined reputation? Once out, the accusation becomes the reputation, and the subsequent condemnation it elicits entrenches itself like a World War I soldier at the Front.
Those who bear false witness are chief among hypocrites, and the only way to stop the injustice they perpetrate seems to lie in counter accusations, a process that helped to end those Salem witch trials so long ago. In Massachusetts, Governor Phipps stopped the arrests for witchcraft and terminated the trials after his own wife was questioned by the witch hunters.
Will the false accusations ever stop? Probably not. Statista online ** documents that 21% of Americans believe in spells and witchcraft. I do not know how many Americans believe that those who favor small and unobtrusive government are “a threat to democracy” as the President has stated, but it is not unreasonable to assume they number in the millions. Salem of 1692 has re-emerged in this century, and all Americans now belong to a community of paranoid neighbors primed to cast accusations.
*National Geographic Resource Library. Witch Trials in the 21st Century: Accusations of witchcraft persist. Online at https://www.nationalgeographic.org/article/witch-trials-21st-century/. Accessed September 21, 2022.
**https://www.statista.com/statistics/1272243/belief-in-spells-or-witchcraft-in-the-united-states/ Accessed September 21, 2022.
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