And asking someone to give up a kidney as part of a deal for parole sets an ugly precedent that could lead down a slippery slope to harvesting Black prisoners’ organs for white America’s transplants.

However, I have to disagree when you call this particular case an instance of torture. This nation accuses other nations of torture while practicing torture itself. However, there have been no allegations of torture by the sisters, their mother or their representatives.

When I read of this case, I immediately suspected that the two men who had allegedly been robbed were both white. Research finds two online newspapers that confirm my suspicion.

The wrong in this case is not that the sisters were tortured, but rather that they were denied their liberty for sixteen years simply because the alleged victims were white men and the alleged perpetrators were Black women. I strongly suspect that these two white men were seeking either sex or drugs.

The two consecutive lifetime penalties imposed by the judge vindicate the proposition that when white men are out looking for illegal sex or illegal drugs, Black women should not take advantage of these white men. White men have historically been able to count on their color and gender in confrontations with Black women, and this is a sacred rights of white men in Mississippi that no Black woman should forget. That, and tradition explain why these two women got two life consecutive sentences in this case.

However, all of this does not equal torture in the normal or even metaphorical understandings of the word. By claiming that this is torture, you simply confuse people about what REALLY constitutes torture.

According to the Federal Government, “torture means”:

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113C > § 2340
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§ 2340. Definitions
How Current is This?
As used in this chapter—
(1) “torture” means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control;
(2) “severe mental pain or suffering” means the prolonged mental harm caused by or resulting from—
(A) the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering;
(B) the administration or application, or threatened administration or application, of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality;
(C) the threat of imminent death; or
(D) the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering, or the administration or application of mind-altering substances or other procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or personality; and

The definition offered above excludes sanction for crimes from the definition of “torture.”

Don’t muddy the waters by using the word “torture” to include all color-aroused injustices.