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It’s About More Than a Noose
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 11, 2007
On Tuesday afternoon, I received a text message in class about a noose being hung outside of a black professor’s office at Teacher’s College. I could barely contain myself from slamming my fist on the table in front of Professor Partha Chatterjee. I was overwhelmed with disbelief, anger, and despair, and had to immediately leave. After venting with friends over dinner, we decided to put out a call for an emergency gathering at Earl Hall where students could react to the events of the day and support each other in a communal space. Over 150 students from a diverse array of communities showed up on short notice during a thunderstorm, and I greatly appreciate their love and support. However, as a university community and people of moral and social conscience, we have to challenge each other to go beyond mere consolation and reaction to this particular event.
While it is necessary, it is also very obvious and easy to condemn and confront racism in the form of a noose on a door, or graffiti on a wall. If we are going to come together in meaningful solidarity, we have to take a strong stand against racism in all its insidious forms. We should not be upset about the noose simply because it offends our sensibilities. We should be upset out of a deep commitment to justice and our care and concern for the members of our community targeted by racism and other forms of oppression. If we care about people and not just ideas, then we should move forward from this event with a commitment to address racism at Columbia in all the ways that it affects our community.
There have been three town halls in response to the graffiti found in IAB and now this noose incident. At all of these events, diverse groups of hundreds of students have stated that the institutional culture of Columbia University must be changed. While bias incidents are certainly dramatic moments and may seem like extreme or anomalous events, they resonate with the daily weight and trauma of marginalization. This is why students have said that we have to increase our support of Ethnic Studies, and continue to rethink and rework the Core Curriculum, or that we need to expand our campus in a way that is accountable to West Harlem.
While different parts of the administration have responded by arranging meetings, it is imperative that we put intense pressure on the administration to implement the institutional changes that stem from years of student struggle to combat racism in the university. Students have shown great initiative in coming together to support each other and think programmatically about the actions needed to change this institution. In past years, student organizing has been responsible for getting the university to establish the Intercultural Resource Center, Ethnic Studies, and the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Students obviously have great passion and imagination for how to deal with racism on this campus and in the world, and the administration has mostly been satisfied with following our lead when we make it unbearable for them to ignore us.
When will the administrators get it and stop playing catch up to a student body that seems far more diverse and innovative than they are? Dean Austin Quigley and Vice President Nicholas Dirks seemed to recognize this need at a meeting with students on Wednesday morning. But at a later meeting with President Bollinger that afternoon, his basic response to student criticism of our institutional structure and culture was that the University is trying, he is proud of those efforts, it can try harder, and we should let him know what are issues are so we can talk about it some more and think about ways to move forward. Frankly, this is an unsatisfactory, tired, and uncommitted response. I have personally been at meetings with President Bollinger over the past few years where students have communicated almost the exact same issues and gotten the same responses, with insufficient progress in the meantime.
When will President Bollinger and the rest of the administration enact a bold and imaginative agenda for working with students to address the systemic injustices of our University community? While I would like to have faith in our administration, decades of student struggle have shown that more often than not, students have to make the administration act, and even when they do, the results are never enough. As students, we have to do more than meekly or even angrily ask for changes to be made, but to leverage our collective power to hold the administration accountable to our needs.
In these efforts within a slow and bureaucratic university, we can never have too great a sense of urgency, for though we must hold the administration accountable, it is ultimately the student body that has to pay the price for their inadequacies.
Christien Tompkins is a Columbia College senior majoring in African-American studies.
Freedom Dreams runs alternate Thursdays.
Specopinion@columbia.edu
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Well, where in hell is the free O.J.?
If you're reading text messages during classes, you belong at Lehman.
Wow. People still don't get that trying to work to eliminate racism doesn't automatically mean that white people are to be disenfranchised in the process. Too many people still see it as a zero-sum game. How sad. It's even sadder that people feel threatened by it and react/regress into the very behavior in question in an attempt to voice an "alternative" perspective. When groups ask for a "white history day" in reaction to black history or women's history days/months, it's clear that they missed the point entirely. This is a result of people growing up in an era with much less overt daily racism, such that they feel the problem is solved when in fact it's merely under the surface.
why do we expect any different look what happened to the black teen in florida he was killed by the people who were to help him and they were all let go free , but vick was convicted of dog fighting and his life is being washed away more people care about dogs than black people and thats a fact hey i am glad oj is free
Where is there free orange juice? Get some. You need a serious dose of vitamin C. along with a few other things, like a coherent statement for starters.
Well, where is the free OJ? I'm waiting three days now.
What if an African-American, or just a plain African student did it?
From:
Bollinger Faces Students
About 1 million Whites were murdered, robbed, assaulted, or raped by Blacks in 1992.
In the last 30 years, 170 million violent and nonviolent crimes were committed by Blacks against Whites in the U.S. These are FBI statistics. Is it any wonder why people are afraid of blacks?
How does the crime of hanging a noose (which is an expression of free speech and not a crime to my knowledge) compare with the number of people affected by black crime? If you want to have a really valuable racial discussion, why don't you stop the high black crime rate or at least acknowlege that it exists, so that we can bring ALL the racial baggage out in the open.
As I see it, European-Americans have reason to be paranoid and of course it's not politically correct to say anything about the AA community.
Posted by: anonymous (not verified) | October 11th, 2007 @ 7:46pm
Dude, you should have been overwhelmed with skepticism. There's no WAY that noose was put there by some white racist; as the security video will undoubtedly prove. If it showed actual white racism the University would have released it IMMEDIATELY.
What possible motive would a white racist have for anonymously tacking up a noose on some woman professor's door? It makes no sense. And seriously, it's hard to find ANY actual overt white racism on campus, so how do the ranters/race hustlers justify their existence? They create an incident, that's how. The only people for whom there would be a motivation to do such a thing-the only people who would benefit from a "racist" act at Columbia- are the race hustlers who live only to scream about "racism" and stage protests. Use your head! Look past your preferred narrative for once. Sheesh.
Or possibly the noose was put there by some crazed, desperate, deranged, jealous (non-white) colleague; which says a LOT about who TC hires. Yikes.
Also, "Chris," try making something of yourself other than playing the race card. That'd be nice for a change. Try getting a REAL identity.
OH NO!!!!! Let's all decolonize, why don't we! Why don't we all pick up and go back to Europe! Myself, as a European-American, must apologize for a noose on the door of some "African American." Why don't we diversify the core curriculum, too, and make it more non-Western in an entirely Western society? You would never ask for the University of Beijing to make its curriculum less Eastern or more Western, to diversify it, would you? Even better, why not make the University of Beirut's curriculum more Western? We can't do that, because the Muslims are a poor benighted religion! All 2 billion of them that have wiped out countless religions in South East Asia! Just because I'm white I'm necessarily evil! Honestly buddy, if you hate it so much here, please go back to the "Africa" which you hold so dear and haven't had an honest claim to for 400 years. I want to see you be happy, and if you're not happy in the US, please go elsewhere. You're just bringing everyone else down.
Basically, if it wasn't for "white supremacist capitalist patriarchy," - you wouldn't be here. You'd be attending "college" in the Congo. Hypocrite. Why don't you check out "University of the Congo" and attend there? Or, in Burkina Faso, where men don't think women should have equal rights? So behind they are. Enjoy yourself at U of Congo! Or, U of Uganda! Why aren't you at those "universities?" LOL
"Madonna" probably planted the noose herself. Like Tawana Brawley? It has happened. I don't know - but, it HAS happened. Such as the recent events at George Washington U - a MUSLIM and his Apologist co-horts made and put up the anti-Muslim posters - FACT. It's a FACT. Go to GWU "Spectator" website and see for yourself. FACT.
The noose incident is a disgrace to Columbia, without doubt. But I agree with the writer of the post who says something is "off" here. It's all very peculiar, and something does not ring quite true. I don't believe Columbia would withhold the surveillance video without good reason, especially with the nation's attention focused on us so keenly right now.
Christien Tompkins should lay off lecturing us all until the facts are known.
Something is "off" about this story. If the professor were male, it would make more sense for a disgruntled student or academic rival to plant a noose, but the symbolism seems lost on a female "victim".
Now it has been revealed that the university will not release video which could help investigators...Interesting.Sorry, it's not adding up. Not tpo mention she seems positively giddy with the attention.
Pick up a history book: women were lynched too.
Wonderful article, Christien. It's important to draw a distinction between reactionary and responsive mobilization. The latter requires a protracted political struggle and a revolutionary vision for the future, whereas the former, as you stated, is a reaction to events that offend our sensibilities.
Some would claim, however, that the administration shouldn't be blamed for an isolated incident of racism and that activists shouldn't tie unrelated events with this hate crime. First, we must recognize that this is not an isolated incident of racism. White-supremacy is the social, political, and economic norm in this country, and Columbia U. is not an exception. For instance, Columbia's proposed expansion into Harlem has similar philosophical foundations with the noose hanging at Teachers College. Both rely on the subordination, exploitation, and overall disregard for the very beings of people of color. So, to suggest that these events are unrelated is both illogical and counter-revolutionary.
Secondly, the administration must be fundamentally anti-racist. Pres. Bollinger doesn't go around writing on bathroom stalls or hanging nooses (Not to say that it couldn't happen. As critical thinkers, we should be suspicious of any man with white privilege and class prestige because they have the most to gain from white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.) The administration, as Christien illustrates in his article, continues to avoid critical dialogue with students on issues of white-supremacy at Columbia. I've never been in such a meeting with Pres. Bollinger, but I've heard that he likes to talk "to" students not "with" us.
Thanks again, Christien, for both a politically relevant and ambitious article.
Thanks for the sophomoric, tenure-track, social-science-speak hot air. I'm sure your students just love you (not).
As critical thinkers, we should be suspicious of any man with white privilege and class prestige because they have the most to gain from white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
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I thought you were against racism?
Don't let this disgusting episode turn columbia against columbia. If Virginia Tech can unite and be supportive of each other in their own tragedy, why can't we? No one ripped the university for the action of one mad man. Lets not blame the entire columbia community for this shocking act. However, lets be united in tackling and solving this. Lets be proactive together and not blame the administration for so many things that are beyond their control. This could be the act of an attention seeking faculty or student or non-staff. Frankly, i dont have much faith on our security guards checking IDs.
Lets get the investigation going including the DNA test on the noose. Hopefully, the truth will come out soon.
Also, this is just my opinion. But this incident is just too convenient. It maybe a sabotage incident. Almost right away, this incident is being liked to other unrelated ongoing university matters and agendas. Its as if this perpetrator wants us to turn against ourselves and create instability.
Llets not overreact with Bollinger. He's right in saying TC is a separate institution and as an affiliated partner, Bollinger is being careful not to undermine TC's own president and administration. Lets not mix other issues and abuse or take advantage of this incident by injecting other unrelated university issues.
Finally, lets work from a strength bases perspective; there is much strengths in TC and Columbia that show us that we can learn from this and act constructively and rationally. Lets be united against this act and racism. But lets not turn against each other and go overboard over this one heinous act.
I want to say in my undergrad institution, a top thirty undergrad national institution in the westcoast, we had a middle eastern student get tazed by police on campus that reeked of intimidation and racism; not to mention the countless crap written on walls and in bathrooms. Unfortunately, ppl are just stupid and write hurtful comments regardless. Such incidents at Columbia is not an isolated one. Its taking place nationally, and to hostage the administration is unfair. Lets work with them and give solutions instead of criticisms
I just hope ppl understand that this incident is not going to make us weaker but stronger. Lets work on this together and not fall apart over this incident.
God Bless.
What 'injustices' do students face? What 'changes' need to be made?
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