Compared to What?
Aaron Douglas, "Aspiration," 1936, oil on canvas
My preliminary thoughts on the recent hate crime at Teachers College, Columbia University's Graduate School of Education.
I've been paying close attention to the Columbia University response to the hate crime at its Teachers College, where my sister is a doctoral student and former campus leader. I was particularly interested in the campus coverage by the Columbia Spectator and the blog, BWOG, run by the staff of student magazine, The Blue and White. The comment sections of both websites witness a reluctance by some presumed members of the CU community to call the hanging of a noose on a Black faculty member's door racist or a hate crime, although the Spectator rightly calls it such.
A commenter on one Spectator article referred to the hanging of the noose as "a dumb prank inspired by other hysteria." A commenter on the BWOG's respective post wrote, "Columbia is not the Jim Crow era-south. If a Columbia Affiliate did this, it was a direct threat against that prof. using a clearly evil symbol. This is not part of a widespread, casual racism among Columbia students and faculty. For that reason, these protests are pointless and stupid."
So the challenge represented by these statements, mirrored in the "he's not a racist" response to Bill O'Reilly's surprise at Sylvia's Restaurant Black and civilized clientele, the "this ain't a hate crime" representation of the Megan Williams case and other racist walk and talk is to make these affronts to Black humanity real compared to whatever guiltproof standard conjured by the ethically irresponsible. So racism is confined to the deep south, you say, nor can it be spewed by anyone with black friends or lovers nor wielded against middle and high income blacks? And these new and adaptable rules trump Black experience! When uninformed or unobjective people, especially but not exclusively white Americans, refuse to call racism what it is, they perpetuate the mindfuck that is being Black in America. For despite the rhetoric of equality and freedom, as we approach or even populate the outskirts of this city upon a hill, there is a good chance we'll be blown back to a telescope's view.
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Comments
1.
mstan22 says:
racism and hate crimes are not confined to the south and it is not just lower income blacks that have to deal with these things. Middle and upper class blacks also deal witht these issues despite popular belief...It does not matter if the noose was hung at columbia, harvard, or yale a hate crime is a hate crime and for people who try to dismiss this crime because of where it took place i guess they still have a lot more to learn
10/10/2007 at 4:30 PM