First there was the “Compton Cookout” party promising chicken and watermelon to students who came dressed as “ghetto bitches.”
Then representatives of a campus humor magazine went on student-run television and called people protesting the party “ungrateful niggers.”
Now a noose has been left hanging in the campus library.
This is Black History Month 2010 at the University of California San Diego.
There’s a debate rolling at the UC Regent Live blog about what the motivation behind of this latest incident is — whether it was an “act of bigotry” or just “an inflammatory action to goad the population.” Here’s my take: there’s no difference. There’s no difference between being a bigot and pretending to be a bigot to wind people up. There’s no difference between being an asshole and getting a kick out of acting like an asshole. Either way you’re a bigot. Either way you’re an asshole.
It’s now 3:30 in the morning in San Diego. The noose was found and reported just a few hours ago. There is a rally scheduled for 8 am at Library Walk on campus. More to come.
Update | A commenter at the UC Regent Live blog has posted a link showing that hanging “a noose, knowing it to be a symbol representing a threat to life, on [a] college campus … for the purpose of terrorizing any person who attends or works at the school” is a violation of California law carrying a maximum penalty of a year in jail. The law took effect less than two months ago.
5 am California time | “ucsd noose” is currently the top search on Google, and when you type in “UCSD” to the search engine, its first suggestion for an autocomplete is “UCSD noose.” The university can’t be happy about that.
9:00 am | In an earlier version of this post, I wondered aloud whether Adam Kissel of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education considered the noose incident “an actionable case of racial harassment or protected free expression,” given the vehemence of his denial that the Compton Cookout invitation might constitute such harassment. Kissel hasn’t answered the harassment question yet, but he has posted to the group’s website to say that the placement of the noose is not protected speech, and that he hopes the person who did it is “brought to justice.”
10:20 am | A UCSD staffer at today’s rally tweets that an administrator has announced that the perpetrator of the noose incident has been identified. More when I get it.
10:50 am | A local news website has new information on the noose incident: The noose was discovered at 10:30 last night, and at nine o’clock this morning a female student confessed to the act in a phone call. UCSD Vice Chancellor Gary Mattews characterized the student as “someone who didn’t think that leaving a noose was an issue.” Police are said to be questioning the student, who could face misdemeanor charges.
12:45 pm Students are now occupying the offices of the UCSD chancellor, as the Black Student Union demands that the university close temporarily due to safety concerns. One report on Twitter suggests that they’ve given the university a 5 pm deadline.
1:05 pm UC President Yudof’s statement on UCSD noose incident says student who confessed claimed she had two accomplices.
2:25 pm Students at UCLA have launched a sit-in at their chancellor’s offices in solidarity with UCSD. (Apologies for lack of links — I’m posting all these updates via iPhone from Amtrak.)
4:40 pm | I’m off the train, I’m at a proper keyboard, and I have several updates:
- Reports that a second noose had been found on campus today, perhaps at the bear statue at Warren College, appear to be unfounded. There has been no confirmation of any such discovery, several hours after the reports first surfaced.
- Students at UCLA staged a solidarity action earlier today in support of the anti-racist activists of UCSD. That action, a sit-in at the offices of UCLA’s chancellor, has ended peacefully.
- At this writing, the UCSD BSU’s five o’clock deadline for action by that school’s chancellor on their demands is just twenty minutes away. Participation in the occupation of the chancellor’s offices, which had dwindled somewhat over the course of the afternoon, is rising again as the deadline approaches. One student on the scene says “hundreds” are there now, with more arriving all the time.
- I’ve set up a Twitter list of students posting about UCSD, particularly those on the scene of the current protest. You can find the list here — if you’re tweeting and want to be added, let me know via Twitter.
8:30 pm | The UCSD administration responded to the BSU’s demands not long after five o’clock, and while the BSU was far from happy with that response, they chose to withdraw and regroup rather than continue the occupation. Expect a strong new push next Monday.
In other news, the administration has announced that the student who admitted placing the noose in the library last night has been suspended, though they haven’t said for how long. The student has not yet been identified publicly.
Sunday morning | A new post on a big unanswered question: What about the accomplices?
Monday morning | The UCSD student newspaper has run a statement that it claims was written by the student who hung the noose in the library. In it, the student claims that a friend of hers made the noose from a piece of discarded rope “without thinking of any of its connotations or the current racial climate at UCSD,” and that she hung it at the desk unthinkingly days before it was discovered. “As a minority student who sympathizes with the students that have been affected by recent issues on campus,” she writes, “I am distraught to know that I have unintentionally added to their pain.”
29 comments
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February 26, 2010 at 8:17 am
Ellie
Adam Kissel and FIRE are defending the Koala’s right to speech, not the noose-hangers. The Koala did not hang the nooses (they were at their office or at the school’s Pub when this happened).
February 26, 2010 at 8:26 am
Angus Johnston
I never suggested that the Koala had anything to do with the noose, and your comment makes clear that you didn’t click through to my previous post on FIRE and the UCSD situation, since that post didn’t mention the Koala either.
February 26, 2010 at 8:36 am
A UCSD Student
It greatly grieves me that the events that have occurred are being so poorly reported. The lack of attention to detail conveys a racist campus, a racist student body, and a racist campus climate. However, reports fail to specify that the party was not a UCSD affiliated event, although a few UCSD students–I am unaware of how many exactly–did attend. Reports do not state that the Koala is A campus “humor” magazine, not THE campus humor magazine. It saddens me greatly that reports largely misrepresent the sentiments of the UCSD general student body. The worst part of all this is that outsiders are portraying the campus in its entirety as racist. I am not racist, and I can say with full confidence that most of the campus is not as well.
Do not let the actions of few represent the actions of all. A few students from UCSD have acted out of their racist perspectives. But ignorant students, and people, exist everywhere.
February 26, 2010 at 8:38 am
A UCSD Student
Pardon my mistake in my previous post:
Reports do not state that the Koala is A campus “humor” magazine, but rather THE campus humor magazine.
February 26, 2010 at 8:40 am
A UCSD Student
Again, a mistake:
Do not let the actions of few represent the intentions of all.
– – –
It is late, and in my rush to finish writing the comment, I had typed some things carelessly. Forgive me.
February 26, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Angus Johnston
It’s true that the Compton Cookout was not a formal university-sponsored event, but I don’t know that it’s accurate to say that just “a few” students attended. In her statement condemning the incident, Chancellor Marye Anne Fox called it a “student party,” and I haven’t seen any subsequent reporting that calls that description into question.
I also haven’t seen anyone characterizing the campus in its entirety as racist. For myself, I’ve reported since the story broke on UCSD students’ anti-racist organizing, including the teach-out that drew several thousand attendees.
As for describing the Koala as “the campus humor magazine” rather than “a campus humor magazine,” that was imprecise, and I’ve changed the reference.
February 26, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Montana
The noose. So, what exactly will the excuses be for this cowardly act that brings up memories of the confederate KKK of the South in their attempts to keep slavery and the non-whites in fear? Is it that are uneducated, is it that they are live in fear because our President in the white house is not 100% white. This is what the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” have brought you. These kids follow what their dullard leaders say. Are you surprise at what they do when you know what they think?
February 26, 2010 at 4:36 pm
guest
It’s a shame that people can’t take a joke, or a theme party. If people starting complaining about the party, it would just lead to more pranks to enflame people.
February 26, 2010 at 4:45 pm
SWC Professor
About 15 minutes ago, students took over the Chancellor’s office. Here is a link to videos students are posting of the event.
http://www.youtube.com/thesectorc
February 26, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Ucsd student #2
I feel the BSU are taking this way too far. Closing the campus? C’mon now. I fully support them but do not try to make it seem like our whole school is racist.
February 26, 2010 at 7:29 pm
mtd
2nd noose was found this afternoon, warren college hanging from a statue
February 26, 2010 at 8:50 pm
student
The whole situation is being blown up by people trying to take financial advantage. Follow the money and this becomes simple to understand. Who will benefit? They are the people who are causing this racial unrest and divisiveness.
February 26, 2010 at 8:51 pm
student
PS It looks like a lot of goodies will be flowing towards the victim studies departments and their hangers on.
February 26, 2010 at 8:53 pm
Alum
@mtd: You’re lying. Campus police have stated that there was NO NOOSE at the Warren Bear Statue. You’re simply lying.
Constitutionality of the anti-noose hate crimes statute: http://writ.news.findlaw.com/amar/20090423.html
It IS constitutional, btw, which is why FIRE and the ACLU would support prosecuting the girl who hung it. FIRE and ACLU defend the Constitution.
February 27, 2010 at 2:22 am
Carnell
People need to lighten up.
This really sounds like an excuse to demand a lot of things. Every group has been poked at – and they still are.
Most nooses are hoaxes.
February 27, 2010 at 5:21 am
JK
It’s not “a joke” or “a theme,” it’s absolutely disgusting. Especially the noose. I don’t see how ignorance is the solution. They need to be expelled for being idiots. Why would UCSD want those kind of students representing them anyway. They’re obviously very hateful or just not very smart to think a noose would not be a big issue.
February 27, 2010 at 1:44 pm
UCSD – Racist Incidents, Again « Continental Drift
[…] in there too: an atmosphere of calm and determined dignity, very impressive. Read the reports from Student Activism and the New York […]
February 27, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Christopher Marlowe
I’m an old UCSD alum. When I went to UCSD: the Koala wasn’t funny; there were a bunch of spoiled frat jerks; and I didn’t see any more racism than I saw in society at large.
Black people made up a smaller percentage of the UCSD population than the neighborhood in which I grew up, but I felt they were just as liked or hated as the people of other races.
The presence of the BSU is perhaps caused those blacks feeling that they are a very small minority, which in truth they are. In my day, there was an all-black intramural sports team that called themselves “Chocolate City”, and that was their perfect right. If a bunch of Frat Boys wanted to make an all white team called “Snow White Vanilla Ivory Picket White Fence”, that would be their right also.
IMHO I think that society is not served by making a big deal over race. All people are the children of God and should be treated with dignity. Hate Crime Laws are really Thought Crime Laws that accomplish the opposite of their supposed goal: instead of fraternity and equality, we create protected classes of people. If you want to stop racism, show love to people of another race who hate you because of your race. As the Lord said: Pray for those who hate you.
February 27, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Diana S.
Any student at UCSD is smart enough to know the threat implied by hanging a noose. Period. Those who choose to minimize the treatening message a noose is meant to deliver, are choosing to be blind. I am proud to live in a state like California, that does take the hanging of nooses seriously and will jail those who threaten students on our school campuses. It will be interesting to see how long the perps bravado lasts.
February 27, 2010 at 8:55 pm
California Taxpayer
What do you think should happen to the perpetrator if she is African-American?
February 27, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Diana S.
The ethnicity of the perp remains to be seen, but I think since there is really no history of African Americans lynching anyone, the assumed intent might be different. The judge and jury then would make the determination of guilt/not guilty based on the facts of the case and apply the appropriate sentence.
February 28, 2010 at 12:18 am
California Taxpayer
True, most, but not all, lynchings were perpetrated by whites. But it is also true that there have been instances of noose involved hoaxes perpetrated by African-Americans. I think it disappointing that supposedly educated people would jump to conclusions before getting all the facts–just as I am disappointed that supposedly educated people would participate in a function that is so denigrating and mean spirited as the Compton Cookout (or whatever it was called).
February 28, 2010 at 1:02 am
Diana S.
Yes.
February 28, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Mitch
The ethnicity of the perp remains to be seen, but I think since there is really no history of African Americans lynching anyone, the assumed intent might be different.
Well, let’s not jump to conclusions, but noose hoaxes are not at all uncommon. Just google. Fact is, black students gain leverage for various ‘demands’ when these things happen, whether staged or not. BTW the current rumor is that the perp is a ‘minority’ but not black. Of course, whites are an underrepresented minority at UCSD, so maybe its a white girl after all
March 1, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Fingers
So what is the answer to the question that everyone wants to know? Is the student who left the noose white or black? Judging by the extraordinary lengths the liberals are going to to protect her identity, I have to assume she is black. And it wouldn’t be a first. Just google “Madonna Constantine”.
March 2, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Mike McGee
Yes, you have seen such reporting (on J. Jones). But you deny that that reporting is accurate.
March 2, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Fingers
If she was white her picture would be plastered on every newspaper in the country for weeks. And Anderson Cooper would be camped out in front of the campus.
March 10, 2010 at 9:23 am
Innermost Parts » Blog Archive » Hate Crime On Campus
[…] is the uproar? When a noose was found hanging in the UC San Diego library less than a month ago, there were protests and sit ins and sympathy strikes at other colleges. Here […]
March 28, 2010 at 8:06 pm
train wreck! « incredible juju.
[…] i don't know how much they've changed w/ the very obvious lynching threats of the jena 6, and the noose found in the library (among other assorted madness) at UCSD this past february. with these things — […]