It’s become increasingly tiresome for me, particularly after writing this a few weeks ago, to publicize all of the random noose hangings sweeping the nation with more posts. They’re all stupid, hateful acts perpetrated by people with a small minds, zero creativity, and way too much time on their hands. But I couldn’t really let this recent noose hanging in Georgia go without mention.
From a press release:
The Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation (TASF) regrets to report that a series of attacks have taken place at the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts, 5616 Memorial Drive, Stone Mountain, Georgia. The first incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, October 20th, when vandals defaced the building as well as tying a noose around the neck of the bronze statue of Tupac Shakur located in the Center’s Peace Garden. The attacks are being investigated as hate crimes by the De Kalb County Sheriff’s Office. The second incident occurred at the Center at 2:00AM Monday morning when the statue was damaged further. A male has been arrested and is currently being held in custody.
Hanging a noose around a dead man’s statue? That’s low. And hateful. And begging for attention — which I just gave! Damn, I said I wasn’t going to do that anymore.
• At this point, it would almost be funny if it wasn’t so sad and infuriating. Good ol’ Bush has appointed a woman who is anti-birth control to head the family planning division of the Department of Health And Human Services. [WP]
• This is what Jason Kidd has resorted to? Grabbing crotches in the club? []
• It’s hard to pick just one thing wrong with this picture. [C&D]
• No matter how hard this guy tries, I will never, ever, ever, ever be interested in NASCAR. [DS]
• So, considering the current racial climate, it’s probably a good idea to keep that Halloween hangman decoration in the garage this year. [SL]
Perhaps because I have no interest in looking at pictures of Katt Williams and suspected the same about you guys, I missed these photos of the diminutive comedian wearing a noose around his neck on the red carpet at the BET Hip Hop Awards. Hilarious*, especially considering two of the Jena Six were also in attendance.
*But, of course, not really.
• I draw the line at the B Phone. I think. []
• Charlie Crist, Florida’s new Republican governor, isn’t afraid to be seen with black people, believe it or not. []
• Are black churches doing enough to educate about HIV/AIDS? The short answer is no, but at least some of them are trying. [AJC]
• Aww, Aaron McGruder. Okay, that’s all. Carry on. []
• Of course (this is what you do in college), Columbia students are rallying against nooses. [CNN]
Forget RateMyProfessor.com. When you’re in college and a teacher (who happens to be black, this is key) pisses you off, it’s totally more effective to hang a noose on her door. Then she’ll get really pissed. Don’t believe me? Look at what just happened at Columbia University!
The noose was discovered this morning and was reported to the New York City Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, members of which are currently investigating the incident. Police and University officials declined to name the professor, who the police described as a 44 year-old black woman, but students identified the victim as Professor Madonna Constantine, who is in the Psychological Counseling department and is known for her work on racism.
“The TC community and I deplore this hateful act, which violates every Teachers College and societal norm,” Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman wrote in an e-mail to Teachers College’s faculty and students.
I mean, if the Ivy Leaguers are doing it now, that means everyone will be soon. Besides the fact that the supposedly smart student who probably did this is getting his or her racism lessons directly from some bigoted, not smart high schoolers in Jena, La., and indirectly from hateful, murderous, group-think mobs that used to torture and murder black people, I give the kid props for a great, original idea.
In other
[CS]
Thanks Michelle and Demetria!
• Australia’s not a racist country. The government would just prefer that Africans not live there. [Reuters]
• When bored, reporters at the New York Times might fabricate a rap beef. [Idolator]
• More black male teachers are needed in South Carolina and, well, everywhere else in the country, I would bet. [WLTX]
• A task force is meeting in Atlanta today to discuss a proposed law banning sagging pants. Good luck making this one stick, guys. [AJC]
• Grambling State University Administrators are forcing the student paper to remove images of an elementary schooler with a noose around her neck as part of a really poorly planned racism lesson. [SPLC]
“Strange Fruit” was originally written as a poem by a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx named Lewis Allan, who was horrified and moved by photos of a recent lynching Indiana. The poem later became a song, and was popularized when Billie Holiday sang it in 1939.
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallow south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
“Strange Fruit,” indeed. Could a teenage prankster/racist listen to this song on a loop for a few hours and still think hanging a noose from a tree is harmless fun?
While the starry-eyed media likens the recent Louisiana protest to Selma, and bloggers pat themselves on the back for a job well done, and over-excited liberal commentators say we are heralding in a “new civil rights movement,” a trend has developed out of America’s newfound obsession with the Jena Six. And it ain’t about peace and love and equal rights under the law.
Hello, old, familiar noose. Welcome to 2007!
First, there was the original noose, in Jena. Well, I obviously don’t mean that the Jena noose was the first noose. People have died with nooses around their necks for centuries and centuries — long before the lynching of blacks, symbolized, with a particular weightiness, by a noose swinging from a tree — became a dark, dark chapter in American history. Since that time, nooses have continuously been a uniquely American way to intimidate and terrorize blacks.
CONTINUED »
• There are ways to teach kids lessons about nooses without actually placing one around a child’s neck. I would hope. [BET]
• Schools no longer teach about the Little Rock Nine, says a member of the historic group. But I blogged about it! [CT]
• Alright, Master P is starting to really annoy me. [ABC7]
• A few more reasons why Clarence Thomas sucks and needs to get over it. [WP]
• In 1995, Ohio lawmakers requested a study analyzing whether or not blacks are treated more harshly in courts. Twelve years later, the study has mysteriously never been conducted. But c’mon, Ohio, I doubt you really need a study to answer your question. [ABJ]
Are nooses fun? If you’re an avowed member of the KKK and trying to navigate your way through throngs of black Jena protesters, I guess they are. I also guess that Louisiana police, who are maybe tired of being called racist, have decided to crack down on the noose game in their state. Hence 18-year-old KKK member Jeremiah Munsen getting arrested for driving around in a red pickup (so cliche!) with nooses flying from the back. The kid also had brass knuckles and a rifle. And it was just last year that police in Jena found nooses to be totally harmless fun!
[CNN]
