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Hanging Nooses: Hate or Hoax Upsurge: Madonna Constantine at Columbia U.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: author and political analyst | Oct 12, 2007 | Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Posted on 10/12/2007 8:18:55 AM PDT by rface

In her book, the Color of Crime, University of Florida professor Katheryn Russell-Brown, found that blacks perpetrate one in six racial hoaxes. The reasons the blacks commit hoaxes aren't totally different than those of white hoaxers. Both are angry, resentful and play hard on stereotypes and fears--that whites are racist, and violent, and that blacks are menacing and violent. The hoaxes encase the worst of black and white fears about each other.

[ snip ]

The flurry of hanging nooses around the country may be a case in point. Hate crime experts and civil rights leaders say, and the media spin is, that the nooses are a white racist backlash to the firestorm of black protest over the Jena 6 case involving black teens in Louisiana accused of battering a white student. Others go further and issue dire a warning that that the nooses are a grim sign of a new racist hate upsurge in America.

A hanging noose found dangling on the office door of Madonna Constantine, a black race relations expert at Columbia University, is supposedly proof positive of the hate wave. The noose on her office door and at other places may well be the handiwork of a loony with a racial ax to grind or it may just be a put up job by a few silly, clueless, students who think stringing up or planting nooses is good for a few yucks and a brief media titter

However, there's another painful possibility. One or more of the nooses could be a hoax to make a point about racism. More than a few writers on the CNN website in discussing the Columbia University noose discovery had no hesitation in pointing the blame finger at blacks. While others simply said they didn't believe that the noose had anything to do with race.

There's no evidence that the hanging nooses are anything other than what they appear, namely sick, racial digs. Yet, the fact that so many believe that blacks are capable of pulling a dumb prank to get attention, or play the race card can't and shouldn't be cavalierly chalked up to white ignorance or bigotry. While the overwhelming majority of those that racial wolf shout to cover misdeeds or for kicks have been white, some blacks have screamed it too.

In her book, the Color of Crime, University of Florida professor Katheryn Russell-Brown, found that blacks perpetrate one in six racial hoaxes. The reasons the blacks commit hoaxes aren't totally different than those of white hoaxers. Both are angry, resentful and play hard on stereotypes and fears--that whites are racist, and violent, and that blacks are menacing and violent. The hoaxes encase the worst of black and white fears about each other.

The Duke University rape case is a near textbook example of how those fears can boomerang. The female black college student that screamed that she was raped at a frat house by white Duke Lacrosse players ignited angry protests and a momentary deep soul search about racial and sexual victimization of blacks. As her story unraveled into a tissue of contradictions and lies, the soul search quickly turned into anger, rage, disgust and racial backlash not just against an on the make prosecutor but at black leaders that accepted her story at face value. Police and public officials felt they were played and may well be far more cautious about rape allegations made by blacks against whites. That wasn't the only blowback. The Duke case was flung in the face of civil rights leaders as the danger of overplaying the race angle in Jena or anywhere else a black is victimized under muddled circumstances. City and school officials in Jena screamed that the infamous noose hanging incident at the high school was not racial since black students also stuck their heads through the noose.

At Historically Black Grambling University, school officials hit the roof when pictures of a young girl being hoisted by a black adult into a noose hanging from a tree hit the national newswires. As it turned out, five professors dangled the noose from the tree to make a dramatic point about the torment of race relations. The professors may have been well-intentioned, but to have an adult stick a child's neck into the noose turned the horror of lynching into a cheap theatrical farce. The terror was trivialized and lost. It sent the even worse message that blacks are perfectly capable of stringing up nooses too.

Hanging nooses no matter whether they dangle from a tree, an office door, or are planted in a Coast Guard cadet's bag, are still a hideous symbol of America's racial past. That's hardly the stuff of fun and game hoaxes no matter who put them there or why they did it.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: boycriedwolf; columbiau; columbiauniversity; madonnaconstantine
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I am truly sorry about this source - but, the article is found here, Hanging Nooses: Hate or Hoax Upsurge
1 posted on 10/12/2007 8:18:56 AM PDT by rface
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To: rface

so, what did the security video show?


2 posted on 10/12/2007 8:21:50 AM PDT by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: edcoil
I understand that the security camera shows nothing yet.

It has a view of the enterance...but not of the hallway where the noose was placed.

3 posted on 10/12/2007 8:23:33 AM PDT by rface (kooky inside and out)
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To: rface
No one came in or out?

That’s odd. A length of rope magically appears, ties itself in a noose and then ends up where?

Great magic trick.

4 posted on 10/12/2007 8:27:36 AM PDT by WakeUpAndVote (Got Towel?)
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To: edcoil

was there a security video?


5 posted on 10/12/2007 8:27:54 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: theDentist
yes, according to the Univ they will only turn it over after they receive a subpoena. Then the police can review it.
6 posted on 10/12/2007 8:30:30 AM PDT by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: rface

More victim mentality.

Someone in my former office evidently got bored and flung a letter-opener into the ceiling tile where it stuck, like the common pencil thing.

The black guy in our office demanded an investigation, and got one, because he felt threatened. It must be awesome to have that kind of power.


7 posted on 10/12/2007 8:31:53 AM PDT by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: rface

If this is a Hate Crime, then charge the person who did it, no matter the race.


8 posted on 10/12/2007 8:32:23 AM PDT by Lockbox
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To: rface
NYPD Gets Security Tapes in Noose Case
...Columbia's Teachers College turned over the security camera images in the noose investigation Thursday under pressure from police.

Browne said police officials were "disappointed and surprised" at a delay caused when the school refused to turn over the tapes without a court order...


9 posted on 10/12/2007 8:32:58 AM PDT by BufordP (Had Mexicans flown planes into the World Trade Center, Jorge Bush would have surrendered.)
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To: rface

Whenever I first saw this story, the first thing I thought was hoax................


10 posted on 10/12/2007 8:35:04 AM PDT by Red Badger ( We don't have science, but we have consensus.......)
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To: BufordP

Why am I getting the feeling that becuase no one wants to say what’s on the video, that the evidence will be “embarrassing”?


11 posted on 10/12/2007 8:39:56 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: rface

The prof who got the noose on her door is in a lawsuit with another prof from the same psych dep’t. There may be more here than some suspect.


12 posted on 10/12/2007 8:44:01 AM PDT by crazyshrink
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To: theDentist
When this sort of thing happens (excluding Jena, LA) my early suspicions are...

Hoax crimes - contrived racist and anti-gay incidents

13 posted on 10/12/2007 8:50:06 AM PDT by BufordP (Had Mexicans flown planes into the World Trade Center, Jorge Bush would have surrendered.)
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To: crazyshrink

whenever there’s an incident involving a Psych professor, then you know something crazy has happened


14 posted on 10/12/2007 8:51:44 AM PDT by rface (kooky inside and out)
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To: rface
Seems to me Columbia brought this on itself.

By inviting the likes of Imanutjob from Iran, Columbia has opened a Pandora’s box. If Iranian bigotry & racism is allowed a forum to speak, why not other racists? Columbia made it clear that ALL views are welcome no matter how sick, twisted, or false they are, & now they should honor that commitment. Doesn't Columbia respect ALL points of view?

I see no difference between a noose & a threat to wipe Israel off the map - both are death threats. If free speech includes the one, then it must include the other.

So, I hope Columbia gets a belly full until it makes them barf!

15 posted on 10/12/2007 9:00:01 AM PDT by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: crazyshrink
Madonna G. Constantine lawsuit vs. Suniya S. Luthar Detectives are also interviewing Constantine's students and colleagues, including one, a woman, who had recently complained about losing a faculty spot in the psychology department to Constantine, sources said. Court records show what appears to be pending civil litigation, with Constantine, 44, in May filing a suit against the other professor. No further details were immediately available. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-noose1011,0,7110114.story ; http://www.tc.columbia.edu/abouttc/faculty.htm
16 posted on 10/12/2007 9:07:37 AM PDT by crazyshrink
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To: BufordP

No matter who hung the nooses they should be prosecuted.


17 posted on 10/12/2007 9:11:25 AM PDT by trumandogz (Hunter Thompson 2008)
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To: trumandogz

yep.


18 posted on 10/12/2007 9:13:21 AM PDT by BufordP (Had Mexicans flown planes into the World Trade Center, Jorge Bush would have surrendered.)
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To: crazyshrink
In this photo released by the New York City Police Department, a four foot long noose hangs from a door knob of a Columbia University professor's office, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2007 in New York. The NYPD's hate crime unit was examining whether the twine noose was the work of students or colleagues at odds with professor Madonna Constantine, who is African - American. (AP Photo/NYPD)
19 posted on 10/12/2007 9:23:47 AM PDT by crazyshrink
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To: crazyshrink

Four foot noose?? Puts the doorknob close to 5 feet.

What, is Columbia the land of the giants?


20 posted on 10/12/2007 9:39:26 AM PDT by jblair (Air Force Brat)
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