| Although I've been extremely negligent in my Jena blogging, I assume most of our readers are acquainted with the basic outlines of the situation. If not, Color of Change is a great place to start. I was moderately hopeful that some good would eventually come out of this - but so far it seems to have kicked off a series of copycat noose incidents. The Southern Poverty Law Center is reporting organized online efforts by white supremacist groups to encourage followers to hang nooses in their communities, among other things.
First, there was an incident in Alexandria, LA (about 40 miles from Jena) where an unnamed 16 year old and 18 year old Jeremy Munsen were arrested with two nooses hanging from the back of Munsen's pickup truck. The 16 year old told police his family was in the KKK, and that brass knuckles and unloaded rifle found in the car belonged to him. Then, 4 nooses were found at a high school in High Point, North Carolina. The nooses were found hung from the main flagpole, in a parking lot, and (two) hung in a tree at the front of the school. Also, there were the two nooses at the Coast Guard Academy. One was left in the bag of a black cadet in July, the other in the office of an officer who conducted a race relations training.
Up here in the North, it's a similar story. Outside of Chicago, an unidentified student drove to Warren Township High School with a noose hanging from his rearview mirror. Worse yet, people are trying to excuse it, using a variation on the same ludicrous excuses we're hearing from those down South.
"A child who lives in Chicago may not understand the real implications of what they're carrying around, like a [Confederate] flag or a noose," said Peggy Riehl, an early childhood development expert with the Chicago Metro Association for the Education of Young Children. "They may not have the real experience that children in other communities that may have seen what that means."
I'm sorry, but I have to call bullshit on that. The Confederate flag, maybe. Maybe they saw it in on the Dukes of Hazzard or something, but a noose? It might be marginally more believable than kids in Louisiana or North Carolina claiming that, but either way, we're deep into the realm of ridiculous excuses here.
This morning brings the unwelcome news that my current home state of New York is continuing the trend. A noose was found hanging in a Long Island police station.
"It's astonishing to hear something like this is happening in Nassau County in 2007, especially in Hempstead Village," said John Nedd, president of the Nassau County Guardian Association, a black police officers' group.
Corey Pegues, a New York City police captain and the president of the Long Island chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said members believed the noose may have been directed at a high-ranking Hempstead police official who is black.
I wouldn't go as far as astonishing, but it is absolutely disgusting. I don't have much to say about all this, beyond noting the obvious - racism is real, it's lurking just under the surface in my community and yours, hanging nooses is an implicit threat and everyone knows it, and the hardcore racists out there will think racism is acceptable unless we say otherwise, loudly. You can add your voice by signing the Color of Change petition, or donating to the Jena 6 defense fund. |
