Commentary

Noose at Columbia University Sparks the Media

Just this morning I read a piece in the Metro, the daily freebie handed out at the PATH station in Jersey City, that seemed to sum up the lunacy of our culture. When I first scanned the article as I waited for the caffeine I had gulped to jolt my heart into action, I was still sleepy and my brain pulsed in the single-digit wattage zone.

But, even semi-zombified, I could see that the story concerning the hangman’s noose found on the office door of a black professor’s door at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College was going to make the ride in with my fellow sardines a memorable one.

OK, enough with the silly buildup. Several hundred students, faculty members, and elected officials joined together to voice their outrage at this odious act. The victim in this case was Professor Madonna G. Constantine, and her specialty is racial identity and multiculturalism. She was given a hero’s welcome by her throngs of freshly minted supporters.

Whoever hung the noose on Professor Constantine’s door is an extremely twisted and tormented soul – but I would also guess that this person is media savvy. This sad display of bigotry brought massive press attention. There were articles in almost all of the NY papers, Mayor Bloomberg was compelled to utter a comment denouncing the crime, and the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force brought the noose in for DNA testing.

I am not condoning this action. I am not a racist. I truly believe that diversity is the key to American society’s long-term survival. But, sensationalizing the shameful actions by a sad few does nothing to bridge the gap between different races, ethnicities and religions. The same tired act gets played out again and again. Between the awful deeds and the sensationalization that follows, real progress towards reducing divisions is never achieved, for that requires consistent serious and unphotogenic efforts away from the camera’s lens.

© 2007 Splendid Marbles.