No. They weren't. Neely's death was a tragic accident that wasn't motivated by hate. A lynching is the opposite of that in pretty much every way except the dead body at the end.

This "lynching" took place on a NYC subway, hardly a hotbed of whiteness and privilege. And plenty of non-white people also felt "discomfort" at the mentally ill man who was shouting threats at them. One of whom helps to restrain him.

Neely's death was a tragedy. I say that right there in the article. More than once in fact. But if preventing it happening to somebody else (regardless of their skin tone) is more important to you than the opportunity to flex your moral outrage, you're going to have to think seriously about why it happened. You don't have to be civil (though it helps). Just halfway intelligent.

Lastly, I don't know what a "comfortable Negro" is. Nor do you. It's just a stupid thing to say about somebody you know nothing about because they're black and didn't validate your unexamined feelings. A way to put a black person who threatens your worldview in a box in exactly the same way that good old-fashioned racists do.

You think that chip on your shoulder is a personality, or maybe an act of resistance and authenticity. It's not. It's a frankly rather boring cliche.