Noose discovery stuns Columbia University

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: CNN

From Sarah B. Boxer
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A noose was discovered this week on the office door of an African-American professor at Columbia University, school officials and the New York Police Department said. The noose was found in a building at Columbia's Teachers College, said Joe Levine, executive director for external affairs at Teachers College. The noose apparently was placed on the 44-year-old professor's office door sometime before 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, Levine said.

Security cameras cover the entrance to the building, but there are none in the hallway where the noose was discovered, he added. The building, which is open 24 hours a day, is accessible only to those with a Teachers College ID card or proof that they are affiliated with someone within the school, Levine said

The New York Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating.

Reacting to the news, more than 150 undergraduates attended a meeting Tuesday night on campus, and more than 120 Teachers College students expressed outrage at a gathering in their dining hall as well, according to the student-run newspaper Columbia Spectator....

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/10/columbia.noose/index.html

[Ilsa]

1. Good god. What the hell is wrong with people? I guess the

hatemongerers are feeling empowered with the likes of oxyrush and others.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

2. Disturbing.

This is like the third or fourth "isolated" incident across the nation in so many weeks!!!

There is something wrong with this country!!!!x(

[codjh9]

3. In the 60's and 70's I thought we were moving being racism, but it appears

that we've actually made very little progress. Or not nearly enough, anyway. And as others have said here, hate-mongers like Rush, Coulter, gay-haters, etc. have only kept hate alive.

[fortyfeetunder]

24. We slid backwards, now in an exponential decline

You would think there was collective outrage on the nooses in Jena, but it appears folks think its OK since the Jena noose-hangers got a slap on the hand.

Since the early 80's it became acceptable among some in the US population to be intolerant of other races and cultures (think of Iran, Iraq, Middle East...Latin America...inner city America...) and is rapidly going downhill.

If this crap is allowed to expand unmitigated, the race riots everyone feared in the 60's may become a reality in the millennium.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Things seemed to burst into flame after the Texas Klansmen killed Mr. Byrd

by dragging him behind their pickup until well after he had died. _{George W. Bush} in sending a message as Texas' governor chose not to attend the funeral of the man who had to endure this filthy atrocity.

Too much hatred going on for these perverts to deal with on their own. They have to hurt someone, harm someone, or terrorize someone, rather than growing up themselves. Low, cowardly, dirty behavior.

[Bitwit1234]

5. Although this is outrageous

I think most of the people doing this, think they are being cool, and macho. When in fact it makes them look like the pathetic losers they are. Anybody that has to slur and flame people to make themselves look good isn't worth the ground they slither around on. There is absolutely no excuse for this type of behavior. From college students yet.

[benld74]

6. THis happened in Jena, and word didn't leak out for 1 year!

[crim son]

7. The current political climate encourages us to hate, and hate unabashedly.

This is the result. It's one more reason for me to despise what the shrub's administration is doing to us as a nation.

[Maribelle]

8. Shouldn't a noose hung like this be considered a death threat?

My husband and I watched the movie ROSEWOOD just the other night, about the massacre that occurred in Florida in January 1923. It was difficult for us to watch in its racist brutality, from the individual lynchings to the massive violence against the entire community, and the innocent children's plight in the cold dark swamp.

One scene shows a KKK thug teaching a boy how to tie the noose. It was heart wrenching, but true, to think how those racist monsters passed on their trade.

The symbolic noose, besides being a racists death threat, is a black and evil pock mark in the history of this nation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosewood_massacre

[qwlauren35]

9. I'm glad that this uncovers a covert truth.

So many people want to pretend that racism is dead and gone. But it's not. We still live in a country in which one racial group is considered superior to another; this manifests clearly in our criminal justice system, where identical crimes are treated differently, and in the "pranks" of our youth, who are often motivated by a clear sense of what others consider offensive, and a desire to push that line - knowing that there will be local community (white) outrage if the "prank" is taken "out of proportion".

There are still white hospital patients who do not want to be treated by black medical employees. There are still "small" slights and slurs that happen every day to remind us of "our place", but are dismissed as "the isolated behavior of a few".

But those small incidents pile up, and eat at the psyches of people for no other reason than the color of their skin.

I'm not going to pretend that there aren't other "minorities" in America who must put up with displays of intolerance. Especially people who are openly gay, obese, or disfigured.

But I definitely get angry with those who want to insist that it doesn't happen anymore. And please don't lay this on "the Republican administration". James Byrd was dragged to death during the Clinton administration. (And Billy Jack Gaither was also slain in 1999, - but I think we all know that homophobia is alive and well.)

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Thanks for your post, and for the reminder. nt

[AtomicKitten]

10. outrageous

School admin needs to nip this ugly sh*t in the bud.

[AlecBGreen]

11. another possibility

The prof. put it up himself to draw attention to the issue. I doubt this occurred but it is a possibility.

[KamaAina]

14. He is a she

A police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the investigation have not been made public, stressed that investigators were looking into a variety of possibilities. One is that the noose was placed on Madonna Constantine's door by another professor with whom she was having a dispute at the university's Teacher's College, the police official said.

[AlecBGreen]

17. yet another possibility

this person is a man DISGUISED as a woman. By placing the noose on "her" own door, he/she is not only exposing racism but also chauvinism. I thought that was a rather obvious possibility so I of course neglected to mention that in my first post. </snark>

[Maribelle]

12. CNN is reporting this very minute of a planned student walkout this afternoon.

A student Desiree reports that within the past five weeks there have been a number of incidents on the campus of Columbia.

[KamaAina]

15. Damn those no-good racist pig southern rednecks to hell!

um, wait a minute, Columbia's in NYC...

:sarcasm:

[smirkymonkey]

26. That's what's so stunning - at an Ivy League School in one of

the most Liberal neighborhoods in the world (New York's Upper West Side), and something like this happens. I live in this neighborhood as well and I can hardly believe it - It makes me think that it's more a personal vendetta than any kind of institutionalized racism. I just don't see it around me (of course, I'm white) but I have felt racial tension in neighborhoods before, and this just isn't one of those neighborhoods where you feel it or see it very often(or only very rarely between assholes.)

[okojo]

16. Re: Noose Discovery stuns Columbia

I would be a cautious right now to jump to conclusions. There was an incident about three years ago with a Prof at Claremont/McKenna who stated her car was vandalized, when afterward it was deemed that she actually vandalized her car. Given how the Jena Six and the noose symbol have been in the news, I would just be cautious to think this is a hate crime, as much it is either something the professor did herself, or a fellow faculty member did this to spite her. Of course it could be a serious hate crime, but given where it was done, the time of day it was allegedly done, something suspicious is about this.

[DeepModem Mom]

25. Anything's possible, okojo. Welcome to DU!

[devilgrrl]

18. Hangman's Noose Found on NYC Prof's Door

Source: Associated Press

Hangman's Noose Found on NYC Prof's Door
By ADAM GOLDMAN (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
October 10, 2007 2:17 PM EDT

NEW YORK - Investigators on Wednesday were looking into whether a noose hanging from the door of a black professor at Columbia University was the work of disgruntled students or even a fellow professor.

A police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the investigation have not been made public, stressed that investigators were looking into a variety of possibilities. One is that the noose was placed on Madonna Constantine's door by another professor with whom she was having a dispute at the university's Teacher's College, the police official said.

The discovery of the noose, found Tuesday, has roiled the Ivy League campus, prompting plans for a protest rally and a meeting for upset students and faculty.

"This is an assault on African Americans and therefore it is an assault on every one of us," university President Lee C. Bollinger said in a statement. "I know I speak on behalf of every member of our communities in condemning this horrible action."

Columbia planned a town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon for faculty and students to address the incident.


Read more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20071010/470c4e40_3ca6_15526200710101035970797

---

Here we go again... what century is this?

[Lisa]

19. scary ...

I also work at a university, and when I hear a racist slur, I confess that it really startles me. I've been fortunate to have supportive people around me, and luckily such things have become infrequent (not sure whether it's because I'm getting older and have more professional standing now, or because times have changed since the 1970s).

[Recursion]

20. I'm always torn about the protest-rally-reflex with these things

On the one hand you don't want the community to take this lying down... on the other hand, it kind of exaggerates whatever pathetic feeling of importance the idiot who did this got from it.

*shrug*

[rosesaylavee]

21. Awful.

What the hell is going on? There has been far too many of these... hopefully not a trend.

[Acadia Blue]

22. OMG...this is horrible! This is a hate crime and I hope they catch them.

[Doctor_J]

23. Raise your hand if you're ready for Civil War II

:hi:

This terrorism by the wingers is starting to really chafe.