Nooses..jokes in bad taste or hate crimes?

[Rooster]

I grew up with a racist parent (even tho she swears she isnt) and I find the whole idea of disliking a person simply because of the color of their skin repulsive! With that said, I dont see why blacks take such a publicized offense to a noose being hung.

I am aware the noose means death. I am aware that blacks were hung for no reason and whites got away with the crime.

The professor at Columbia is obviously a well educated woman and i dont understand her living in fear. Why? Simply because one idiot hung a noose on her door? Does she think that is the mindset of the whole campus? I bet she has an idea of who would have done that. I am sure the idiot doesnt hide his/her feelings from the public.

The one person or two people (I doubt it was the entire faculty) that hung the noose have accomplished exactly what they wanted to...install fear.

The things we fear are unique to each individual.

Take down the noose and in front of one of her her classes, show the noose, tell where it was found and toss it in the garbage. Why give a rats ass what anyone else thinks about you. I learned that a long time ago and its how I live my life. When you get that mindset, it sure makes you alot happier.

[Chimera]

Saying that nooses shouldn't offend blacks is like saying the swastika shouldn't offend Jews......Seriously people stop trying to find loopholes to defend racism....

[Mia]

Death threats shouldn't be taken seriously? I don't know of any person of any color that would take a noose hung on their door as anything but.

[Milton Bradley]

Saying that nooses shouldn't offend blacks is like saying the swastika shouldn't offend Jews......Seriously people stop trying to find loopholes to defend racism....

You're just infering that because the topic is discussed, that those same feelings are held by the people making the arguments.


This is not always true, particularly in the more taboo subjects.


It's often more a case of people being curious on the sociological front.

[Chimera]

You're just infering that because the topic is discussed, that those same feelings are held by the people making the arguments.


This is not always true, particularly in the more taboo subjects.


It's often more a case of people being curious on the sociological front.

Ok.....I'm guessing you're referring to my last statement.....Either way my example stands....I couldn't really care less why they're discussing the topic...

[Rooster]

I am not defending racism. I just was interested in JQP views on the current "trend" of noose hangings in the news.

[Kamehameha34]

What constitutional right does someone have not to see a noose?

What rights are being infringed upon when a noose is tied to a tree?


Racism is a social issue. Thoughts, even ones you find distasteful, should not be policed by the government unless rights are infringed.

[Chancellor]

You don't need the quotation marks around the word minorities. Blacks are a legitimate minority in the U.S.

I put quotation marks around the word because I don't accept this notion of majority and minority. If one was born in the United States or is a naturalized citizen then one is an American.

I, too, used to question the necessity of a separate class of crimes called hate crimes. Then someone explained to me that hate crimes are crimes against a class of people. It might be committed against an individual, but only because that individual represents an entire class of citizens.

I only accept two classes of people: Americans and not Americans.

For example, say some militant atheist decides to beat you unconscious with a cross as you leave church. The police find no connection between the two of you (in other words, this was not a crime targeting you for personal reasons). In that case, the atheist is guilty of assault (perhaps even attempted murder) and the hate crime angle can be used as an extenuating circumstance to seek a harsher penalty. Since he was, in effect, attacking a entire class of people, the hate crime provision addresses that fact.

To me it doesn't make a difference whether he did it because of my religious affiliation or for some other reason, I would be just as assaulted either way.

[Jack]

To me it doesn't make a difference whether he did it because of my religious affiliation or for some other reason, I would be just as assaulted either way.

Yes you would be. The point to hate crimes, though, is not that you were assaulted for being religious but were assaulted as a representative of a class of citizens. By assaulting you, the perp intended to assault all those like you. Maybe you don't recognize separate classes of people in the U.S. (neither does Colbert, but he intends that it be taken as a joke), but the law does. It would be nice if everyone was colorblind, but until the day they are, we all have to oppose racism and such where ever we encounter it.

[Chancellor]

Yes you would be. The point to hate crimes, though, is not that you were assaulted for being religious but were assaulted as a representative of a class of citizens. By assaulting you, the perp intended to assault all those like you. Maybe you don't recognize separate classes of people in the U.S. (neither does Colbert, but he intends that it be taken as a joke), but the law does. It would be nice if everyone was colorblind, but until the day they are, we all have to oppose racism and such where ever we encounter it.

The only way American society will ever become color blind is if we are color blind in our laws. The very notion of hate crimes laws is an insult to anyone who was ever assaulted or murdered for reasons other than being a member of a "protected" class.

[Chaossaber314]

What constitutional right does someone have not to see a noose?

What rights are being infringed upon when a noose is tied to a tree?


Racism is a social issue. Thoughts, even ones you find distasteful, should not be policed by the government unless rights are infringed.

Agreed!

In fact the much more contemporary and widespread use of the noose is in relation to suicide, so to me someone hanging a noose on a door would indicate "Kill yourself," which while insulting is not something I would take as a threat that someone is going to kill me.

Fun (read:Morbid) Facts:

-4743 People were lynched between between 1882 and 1968.
-Around 3500 of them were African Americans.

Lynching - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-6,198 People kill themselves each year by Hanging Suffocation

Suicide Statistics at Suicide.org! Suicide Statistics, Suicide Statistics, Suicide Statistics, Suicide Statistics, Suicide Statistics!

-Rounding down to 6k and given the same amount of time as the total number of lynchings, or 86 years we have more or less approximately (86x6000) 516,000 total deaths.
-Giving offended African Americans the benefit of the doubt they're beat by 512,250. Not to mention the fact that these figures are related to the current day and not a half century ago.

So, statistically, nooses are connected more to suicide than racism/lynchings.

[Jack]

The very notion of hate crimes laws is an insult to anyone who was ever assaulted or murdered for reasons other than being a member of a "protected" class.

I disagree. That would infer that being the victim of a hate crime was somehow more noble than being killed for other reasons. That isn't the case. This is simply another layer of protection under the law. It does not imply anything about victims of similar crimes committed for other reasons. We aren't a classless society. If anything, we're creating new classes of citizens more frequently now. I would contend it's one more way in which our society is becoming fractured and divisive.

Ideally, we wouldn't need a hate crimes category. In the real world, we still do.