| I received yet another email about the display of nooses -- this time on the office door of a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University. According to Amanda Erickson and Josh Hirschland, "a hangman's noose" was found pinned to the door of a professor in the Psychological Counseling department. Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman reported the incident to the New York City Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force on October 9, 2007. The professor, a 44-year old African American, according to Erickson and Hirschland, is "known for her work on racism." In the same report, University President Lee Bollinger denounced the incident: It is an "assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us," he said. Fuhrman, according to a BBC report, called the incident a "hateful act." The professor's race and her subject "racism " contextualizes the incident as a hate crime. What were the signs that lead up to this display of a noose, this overt display of racism? The atmosphere must be ripe for the manifestation of violence, the display of nooses or the slashing of tires, or worse. The American Psychological Association contributes a definition of hate crimes in the 2002 FBI's Hate Crime Report. A hate crime, it reads, is not only an attack on "one's physical self, but is also an attack on one's very identity." The FBI report continues: "Attacks upon individuals because of a difference in how they look, pray or behave have long been a part of human history. It is only recently, however, that our society has given it a name and decided to monitor it, study it, and legislate against it." How do you monitor the daily gestures, comments, behavior, incidents that only occasionally reach the surface because someone (not as cleverly creative with the narrative of innocence nor as skilled at concealing their fear and hatred of racial difference) becomes carried away in a society that tolerates the mistreatment of difference? Racial intolerance has been taught for so long and in so many subtle ways that practitioners are no longer aware that their intolerance glows. I remember talking with a professor here in Madison about this atmosphere of racial intolerance. He told me that I should not expect change anytime soon! I understood that this level of racial intolerance for some was of little concern for others. How do you "monitor," "study," and "legislate" intolerance, hate in the hysteria of "Black crime"? Last month, in Jena, Louisiana, Black citizens led a protest march against racism after three nooses were hung under a school tree used traditionally by White students. The Black students asked permission to sit under the tree and this attempt at forward progress led to a series of incidents, including outrageous prison sentences for six Black youth charged with fighting a White student. The White students, who displayed the noose were not charged with a hate crime -- let alone -- a crime! Their display of nooses was referred to as a prank. District Attorney Reed Walters said that the incident was "not and never has been about race. It is about finding justice for an innocent victim and holding people accountable for their actions." To deconstruction this statement, if it is necessary still read "justice for an innocent victim" to mean the White student. White students taunted and even pistol-whipped one of the Black students days prior to the noose incident. Read "holding people" to mean the six Black students of Jena Central High School in particular and Blacks in general "accountable" but for what? Existing? For refusing to denounce their humanity, their racial heritage, their blackness -- they should be locked away for the bulk of their lives? Why should we wait until nooses are hung or someone is raped or killed before the investigation of hate begins? These incidents are the tragic outcome of a way of being for most Americans who deny the need to confront the root cause of racial hatred, that is, the hate crime of enslavement itself, of profiteering and of instituting racism to further repress Black people. What about "accountability" for the hate crime of enslaving over 60 million Black people? The professor at Teachers College is punished for presenting the subject of racism! Black while American is dangerous! Certainly we are not the only people of darker hue subjugated by institutionalized racism, everyday racism that continues as behavior-as-usual toward Blacks. The majority of the world's people of darker hues are subjugated to horrendous treatments under the guise of free trade agreements, immigration legislation, food embargoes, IMF loans, U.S. regime-change policies, and a host of "incidents" that "educate" America's children about how to treat others racially and culturally different from themselves. The terror of Jena, Louisiana and Teachers College in New York are not isolated incidents about how America has always responded to Black people. The practice and profits of slavery in America continue to generate these children of a "hateful act." |
| Voices/Dr. Jean Daniels The hate that leads to hate crimes |
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