Unless you possess the enviable ability to unconsciously tune out stupid news stories, you have probably been subjected to the pointless hoopla surrounding the Columbia noose incident. In summary, a black professor specializing in something to do with race found a noose hanging on her door in the morning. This, predictably, set off a media firestorm complete with campus protests and university sponsored town hall meetings. In other words, a lot of people wasted a lot of time while deluding themselves into thinking that they were doing something important. Let’s take a look at some of the asinine quotes from various people regarding the incident.
“I think we are all pretty much mystified as to why it happened. This is an institution that prides itself on having open dialogue about race and fairly progressive ideas.” – Psychology professor George A. Bonanno
Use your head, George. Perhaps an ignorant, affluent, white male Columbia student was ticked off by the Jena 6 incident and decided to copycat the noose incident on the door of a professor who specialized in black studies and spoke openly in support of the Jena protests. I’m not saying that this theory is correct or even well thought out or that the incident was in any way justified but forgive me for being less than “mystified” as to possible reasons for this debacle. Good thing this guy is a psychology professor.
“I came here from the Virginia. I’ve been here since 2003 and there has been incident after incident. It’s no so different from the South.” – Anonymous black graduate student
Is Virginia the South? Isn’t this statement a generalization of the South as an overall racist place? Isn’t that an example of stereotyping? Is Columbia a really racist place? Should the stupid actions of one person be used to label an entire student body? Do Columbian grad students think before they speak?
“There’s nothing good about this incident, this is horrible… but we should be doing this talking, and if it takes this thing to make us do this, so be it.” - President of Teachers College Susan H. Fuhrman
Of course, there were the mandatory discussions between campus student leaders and faculty and the obligatory town hall-style meetings to discuss ending racism at Columbia. Apparently they aren’t familiar with the term, “preaching to the choir” at the University. What was the point of these meetings? If a hundred non-racist people get together to talk about how they need to stop being racist will this - in any way, shape, or form – discourage incidents like the noose from happening in the future? Seriously, were all these town meetings held on the off chance that the perpetrator would accidentally stumble upon them and then repent his evil ways? Might it have been better to post flyers about a meeting discussing the pointlessness of the protests so that when students who thought this wasn’t a big deal (obviously latent racists) showed up, the “open-minded” members of campus could use their superior logic and reasoning and convert them to non-racism?
Susan Fuhrman also assured the public that she is planning on recruiting more minority faculty members and offering more scholarships to minority students. Can someone explain to me how this incident should logically lead to that reaction? Should our universities really be increasing non-merit based admissions (and thus decreasing merit based admissions) simply because of an incident like this? Isn’t her statement less of a carefully thought out plan designed to increase African-American academic performance and more of a reactionary statement designed to appease the masses?
"The racism we saw in Jena, we now see in New York, even in the Ivy League towers, even in places like Columbia University in 2007. We might as well be in Columbia, South Carolina in 1809." – State Senator Bill Perkins
This quote, especially coming from a state senator, is appalling. “We might as well be in Columbia, South Carolina in 1809”? Why not just spit on the graves of those who gave their blood, sweat, and tears to get the African-American people where they are today? Isn’t Mr. Perkins really implying that the whole “civil rights movement” got blacks nowhere? Or maybe Senator Perkins simply enjoys using reactionary statements to support his factually incorrect delusions of racial oppression.
“Right now we have no suspects but we will go down all investigative pathways,” - Commander of NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force Michael Osgood, right before announcing that they had ruled out any possibility that Professor Constantine had hung the rope herself.
“Our victim is a victim,” he said at police headquarters.
I simply want to point out how quickly they exonerated Professor Constantine, which further reinforces that this entire “criminal case” is a complete sham. Doesn’t Constantine, by far, stand to gain the most from the entire incident? She simply hangs a rope on her door and she becomes a celebrity complete with TV show appearances and a virtual guarantee that her future work receives considerably more attention than it would have otherwise. Doesn’t the whole incident serve to draw notice to a scholarly field that she considers extremely important? And the icing on the cake… doesn’t this incident cast suspicion on her “academic rival” who she filed a $100,000 defamation and slander lawsuit against earlier in the year? Would she really trade the accompanying fame and fortune for never seeing that noose? She may be a victim but she’s a victim who is going to sell many more books than she would have had this incident not occurred.
I personally do not believe that the Professor hung the rope on the door based on just gut feeling. Constantine has an accomplished career and it seems like she genuinely enjoys her work and I can’t see her risking that on a stupid publicity stunt. That said, considering that hate crime hoaxes are not the rarest things in the world, you think that a serious police investigation into the matter would have started ruling out suspects only hours after discovering the vile symbol? Did Constantine really have fewer motives than, say, the McCanns?
“I am upset that the Teachers College community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident and I would like us to stay strong in the face of such a blatant act of racism…I want the perpetrator to know that I will not be silenced” – Madonna G. Constantine.
Oh wow, thank God that Madonna has let us know that she won’t be silenced. Is there really a movement in the academic world to silence professors and departments specializing in racial issues? Is this not one of the fastest growing academic sectors in the country? I don’t think anyone deserves to be subjected to a symbol of hatred such as a noose but what would it really say about a professor if they decided to hold back their opinions because of a prank like this?
Let’s face it; this all probably doesn’t happen if Jena doesn’t happen. In turn, all the anti-racism commotion over the noose no doubt prompted the anti-Semitic swastika cartoon found a few days later in the Columbia bathroom. Bottom line – people are copycats. If Professor Constantine were really dead-set on eliminating such vile symbols of racism, wouldn’t she be better off completely ignoring (or at the very least downplaying) the incident rather than allowing the perpetrator to bask in the media spotlight they got but did not deserve? So instead of ignoring the work of a lone asshole, she decided to take advantage of the situation and publicly illustrate both how strong a woman she is and how easy it is to for any idiot with a few feet of rope to get news coverage these days.
In summary, I’m disgusted at the way this case portrays the racial climate of the United States and the overall implication that little progress has been made since the Civil Rights Movement. I’m worried that people will start seeing racism in places where it does not exist. I’m concerned that young people are being taught that they should let one cowardly asshole bother them that much. And most of all, I’m disturbed that both white and black young people are being deluded into thinking that irrelevant issues matter. I know people want to recapture the heroism and activism of the 1960s but those days are past and the issues have shifted. Are anti-racism protests at Columbia hitting at the heart of this nation’s racial strife? Isn’t this all just one big excuse to avoid discussing the real problems concerning race facing America?
