What Scholars Make of the Noose Incidents
While some have suggested that the hangman’s noose has been deduced to a hoax planted only to get a quick rise from the media and people of color, scholars say there is much to be concerned about.
6 Responses to “What Scholars Make of the Noose Incidents”
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October 22nd, 2007 at 11:47 am
Does Neal really think that white students are looking around for ways to ‘gain a competitive edge’ over blacks? lol
What do you think would happen if blacks just ignored the noose incidents? The ‘copy-cat’ nooses would diminish, I would think, and Jesse / Al would lose a bully pulpit & $$$. Sounds like a win-win to me.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Lee Baker, proud the Duke Group of Hatey-Hate (88) member.
’nuff said.
http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/03/groups-continued-delusions.html
The unintentionally revealing comments keep coming from the Group of 88.
Here is Group member Lee Baker, on the suffering Group members have endured:
Our syllabi are getting scrutinized. There are a couple Web sites that instruct people to go to ratemyprofessor.com and give negative comments. The white supremacists sites have our names and e-mails.
It’s unclear precisely what sites Baker is talking about in his second and third sentences; I certainly haven’t run across such examples.
But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that what he says is true. A college professor has compared having fraudulent evaluations and being targeted by hate groups to having his syllabi “scrutinized.”
Most professors do not consider their syllabi to be secret documents, to be shielded from public view. (I put all of mine on line, and have for years.) Can Baker seriously maintain that having outsiders examine what, exactly, Duke professors teach is out of bounds?
A quick glance through Baker’s list of offerings suggests that he would be a prime beneficiary of the proposed Group of 88 Enrollment Initiative.
Take, for instance, his “Life in America”—an offering that focuses on . . . race. (Who could have guessed—a Group of 88 class oriented around race, class, and gender?) [Note: After this post appeared, the syllabus vanished from the Duke University website. A cached version of the syllabus is, however, still available.]
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:26 pm
If Professor Lee Baker and Dr. Mark Anthony Neal were truly interested in the plight of blacks, student or otherwise, they wouldn’t worry about an old racist symbol such as a”noose”. After re-construction through the civil rights marches of the mid-sixties there were a total 4,743 lynchings of which 3,446 were black, the other 1,297 were white. (Statistics provided by the Archives at Tuskegee Institute.) Of the 8,000 murders of blacks in this country last year 96% were committed by blacks. More than twice that were lynched in a hundred years. And if they really wanted to teach diversity, they would begin by apologizing to the duke lacrosse team, for which the only crime against them, were being white.
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Mark Anthony makes a bogus argument. There are plenty of easier things that White students could do for so-called “academic advantages.” Hanging a noose is just a cowardly, dastardly act calling for attention so anyone doing that for any other purpose is fooling themselves.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:28 am
Hanging a noose is distasteful and racist, but not necessarily a hate crime. The rash of noose hangings is a byproduct of a culture that looks for sensational acts to garner media coverage. It falls in the same category as the black-face and hip-hop imitation parties that has become a staple of white fraternities, and the racists emails and notes being posted at various college campuses. Should these acts garner the condemnation of the entire nation? Yes! Absolutely! The statement made by Dr. Mark Anthony that noose hangings are used to distract African American students from academic competition is somewhat off center. In the past, when actual lynchings occured, and when Black-face comedy was a mainstay of white entertainment, African Americans used such denigration and stereotypes to fuel higher levels of academic achievement! I
October 25th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
If more white people actively sought to understand their own baises, racist thought and positions of power and privilege, unfortunate incidents such as this one perhaps would not still occur.
The issue of racism in america is an issue for the majority to examine, i’m talking about white men. As a white man myself, I cannot expect racism to end unless I examine my own racial identity and power position in relation to others.
Just as rape and sexual assault need to be considered “men’s issues,” as the overwhelming majority of rape and sexual assault are committed by men, racism MUST be considered a white men’s issue, as considering the definition of racism as “power plus prejudice,” only whites can be racist…particularly white men who hold the majority of power in our society. This is not meant to bash white men, only implore them to take off the wool that’s been shoved over their eyes and examine their own social standing and privilege if real change is ever to be made. It’s easy to blame black people for racism. It’s harder to examine ourselves.