Breaking news: white boy does something racially insensitive and is knocked right on his ass.
Gabriel Keith, an assistant editor at the City College Times at Minneapolis Community & Technical College, used a drawstring from a hooded sweatshirt to make a noose, from which he hung a message about making deadlines in late October.
The tactic did not go over well in a newsroom that included several black students. Keith took the noose down five minutes later, but the ensuing hubbub led to his firing from the paper and a dispute between the editor-in-chief and the adviser.
Long story short: everyone involved knows that this college newspaper editor was not trying to make a racist statement; however, his offensive and poorly executed attempt to be funny and the apparently poor handling of the event afterwards meant that at the very least, he needed to be replaced by someone with a clue. Anyone who has ever spent five minutes in a campus newspaper office can probably imagine how this whole thing went down. And really, how can you not have sympathy for the guy? Expecting a journalism upperclassman to be aware of all the major symbols in modern American history is like expecting him to remember the names of all 50 freaking states. That’s like, a lot, and he’ll never even use half of it, so whats the big deal?
I was in the middle of learning to fix a heat stage when my friend came in to talk about this terribly critical event; mostly he wanted to complain that the thought police were on their way when a man can’t use a noose to convince his subordinates to do their work on time. I was just surprised that every guy in the room needed to have why a noose could be interpreted as a racist symbol explained to them. I made several compelling arguments about why this newspaper editor was in the wrong, including: “well, duh” (this one didn’t work as well as I think it should have) and “a newspaper editor, off all fucking people, should know better than to use such a heavily laden symbol for something so stupid, especially since the noose has no special relationship to making people work more effectively so he could have just as easily picked something else” which I think they found a little harder to argue with. I mean, really, pretend you’re a person who has no negative noose-related associations, then pretend you’ve just seen one hanging over your boss’ desk. My first thought? WTF? My second? Maybe I need a new boss, if this one is threatening to kill me in an elaborate and antiquated manner for missing a deadline. Perhaps I’d like to work with someone with better management skills. See? Even if you remove the racist imagery all together, Gabriel Keith is still a dumbass.
Then I actually read the article. Now, the version I linked to is similar to the version I read this morning, but it replaces a few paragraphs with more recent information. In the version I read, two assistant editors (or they may have been section editors, I forget which) said that they’d been there when Keith and his friend had made the noose, and they told them it was a bad idea to hang it up. In fact, other suggestions were made and dismissed in favor of the noose.
The two assistant editors were black women, by the way.
So now those of us who have spent some time in the campus journalism school really know how this all went down, don’t we? There’s always that One Guy. They’re everywhere, and most of them never get beaten with the clue-by-four they so richly deserve, so you can imagine how surprised these guys are when someone finally calls them on their bullshit. How much do you want to bet that the two guys making the noose were too busy giggling over how funny it was to heed their prudish colleagues warnings? And now they’re paying for it, cause no one can just take a joke. It’s a harsh world, I know, and let’s pause and feel sorry for poor Gabe. OK, that should be enough of that. I’m sure he’ll do OK once all the furor dies down; you don’t reach 2623 that clueless without some kind of safety net.
So I went back to my friend and said, hey, I read the article and while it is overkill that this campus incident has made national news, the editor in question was pretty fucking stupid, doubly so because he’d been warned by his two coworkers that hanging the noose was a terrible idea. Now, I know what I’ve been thinking when I’ve told guys “I don’t think this is a good idea.” And I have been told by others, “I don’t think this is a good idea.” We all know what “I don’t think this is a good idea” means; it means: dude, fucking stop it, this is an awful idea. No, seriously, fucking stop it right now because you’re going to get in trouble. The person saying this is nearly always right.
My friend, however, considered this a terribly cryptic, almost useless warning. What, he said, are we supposed to read women’s minds?
White male privilege in a nutshell, ladies and gentlemen.
Exactly what part of “not a good idea” is cryptic? o.O
I would amend that to – white male AMERICAN privilege (perhaps?).
Might I add – As an Australian, I have absolutely no clue about negative connotations of the ‘noose’ within modern American history and thus the reference is completely lost on me.
I believe I did mention in the post that this is a modern American symbol; everyone involved is American so it hardly seemed worth emphasizing.
The noose is associated with lynching, which has a colorful and decidedly racist history here in America. Not that all lynchings were necessarily racist or that all racist crimes involved lynching, but the two often went hand in hand and as a result the noose is a strong enough symbol that it is used to this day to let the negros know that they’d better not be so uppity.
It’s difficult to discuss hundred years between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement in any history class without the word lynching coming up, so for any American who graduated high school to not be aware of this is pretty bad.
Quite frankly, it’s difficult to discuss the years between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States PERIOD. It’s embarassing, and I think that most people would like to avoid it, and distance themselves from it. That’s why when we talk about lynching in high school, it’s the vilianous KKK members in white hoods that do it, almost archetypal bad guys. They don’t show the pictures of the family members taking pictures in front of a dead hanging black person in their Sunday best. They don’t know about the day-to-day terrorisms that had the noose as an ever-present background. This leads people to think that only lynching was only done by “bad” people, not good people like them, and that a noose is only a symbol of racism if “bad” people use it.
I’m a college educated white male. I hope that I’m not a racist simply because I was not aware that a noose was a symbol of black oppression. When I think of a rope noose I think of old western movies where the cattle rustlers get strung up for doing their misdeeds. Now, here is my (sort of) dilemma. Do I need to aplogize to someone? I’m guilty of ignorance, perhaps, but not of racism, I hope.
It’s not like racist crackers hanging nooses as a threat against black people has been in the news lately or anything. How was he supposed to know?
(Bonus points for HHGTTG reference. Heh.)
I hope that I’m not a racist simply because I was not aware that a noose was a symbol of black oppression.
Not knowing doesn’t make you racist, but it does make you clueless. Like the article said, everyone, including the black women who told Keith to knock it out, knows that he was not trying to sent a racial message with that noose. He was probably trying to be funny. His real mistake was in not listening to those women or asking why they thought a noose specifically is not a good idea.
There are many situations in which ignorance will absolutely blindside you; for Gabriel Keith, this happened to be one of them. So spread the word: yes, nooses are used as a racist symbol, and no, they should never be allowed to float around in any place where they can be misconstrued. This Pollyanna faux shocked “O rly?” needs to stop: blacks know what a noose means, and since they’re still using it, racist whites know what a noose means too. Having a bunch of supposedly learned white guys running around saying, well, golly gee, who could have known? isn’t saving anyone’s skin from getting fired, but it does provide racists with plausible deniability. After all, it was just a joke who knew it was a racist symbol? Wink, wink.
It’s another form of white entitlement – forcing other races to point out the problem (and even coach us on apologies) because we can’t be bothered to be aware, or admit it, ourselves.
The information which is not in the Editor and Publisher article is fully detailed here:
It seems to me they made a strong effort to stop him while avoiding an ugly confrontation about race, probably because they didn’t want to deal with faux-clueless, defensive bullshit. Alas, white male ignorance works both ways – obvious hints from black women are ignored, explicit demands would be deemed overreactions.
I’m a college educated white male. I hope that I’m not a racist simply because I was not aware that a noose was a symbol of black oppression.
Are you serious? A of all, where the hell did you go to school? B of all, do they have a refund policy?
Do I need to aplogize to someone?
If you need to apologize to anyone, it should be to your parents for wasting $80k on your education. Sorry, there’s just no excuse.
I hope that I’m not a racist simply because I was not aware that a noose was a symbol of black oppression
It means you’re part of a “privileged” few to whom such things are ignorable.
ps: bring back the guillotine!
ps: bring back the guillotine!
One of the guys I was talking to about this made just that argument. I didn’t roll my eyes quite to the back of my head.
Here in AR some of the same arguments get made about the “rebel” flag — it’s not a racist symbol, you know, b/c we white guys ain’t mean to use it that way! Not OUR fault touchy black folk and PC fellas insist on reading it as a racist flag! It’s jist a symbol of our patriotic love of the South! Honest!
But a noose as a lariat, that’s a new one, I admit.
Gabriel Keith is actually my first cousin, and we are extremely close friends as well. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that my cousin is not a racist. True, he is naive, but not a racist. The kid went through three tours in Iraq and worked alongside blacks, whites, gays (yes there are some in the military), and a host of different backgrounds. Gabe hates no one except the the unnecessarily mean and cruel. Never would he hang this as a symbol of hatred/racism, and I think he deeply regrets his decision not because he is getting screwed out of the whole thing, but because his actions made people feel victimized. We have talked about this article and the events and he is concerned for his own safety now, which is just a shame.
Also, I would like to point out that Gabe is 23, not 26. He has recently finished his terms with the Marine Corp and his entry into college has been the first for him since high school. He has done a lot for his country, and I know that he went through some horrible events in Iraq that. I think he deserves to have a break now.
That much life experience and he still wasn’t aware that a noose is a racist symbol?
God, damn.
Look, I’ve said probably three times on this page that everyone knows Gabe wasn’t being malicious or racist, but it is also very clear that if he had just paused for one second to ask those girls why they were standing around his desk doing their best to throw a wet blanket on his joke he could have avoided this whole incident.
And seriously, three tours in Iraq in the company of black soldiers and he’s still not aware of A) a fairly major racist symbol and B) when to listen to a black person who is just trying to warn him that he’s about to step in it?
I know it sounds pretty amazing that it didn’t register with him, and what would serve him best is to apologize for his actions very, very publicly. It’s not that he isn’t aware of what it COULD mean, it’s just not something that clicked with him at the time. And honestly, anytime I went to a haunted house this year and saw a noose on a wall, my first reaction or thought wasn’t “wow, there’s a symbol for racism.” He simply just wasn’t thinking, and with ignorance comes consequences.
The problem that this situation has created is that there are A.) people for him or B.) people against him. This event doesn’t need to take up any more of people’s time, and whether or not my cousin new what the noose means or represents, he certainly has the task of making sure responsibility is taken. But more than anything I hate to see this be a divider in a community, especially a college community.
He needs this to go away for his life just as much as those offended deserve it to go away for their lives. I love my cousin and he really is a great human being, even if he made a terrible mistake.
To answer your question, I paid for school by working part-time and applying for student loans. I’m not privileged. I work two and (sometimes) three jobs to pay the rent, buy food, and put gas in my beat-up, old car.
The fact is, I grew up in Chicago and never once- not in school or on the street- was I ever taught that a noose was a symbol of racist hatred, nor did I ever see a noose being used to threaten another person. I’m certainly not defending myself by saying ‘I should not have been aware’- I’m just saying, ‘I was not aware before, but now I am.’
Life is about learning. That’s the great thing about being human.
Here’s an idea- before you hang your labels on me (racist, clueless, privileged, etc) you might want to know a little about me. I’m a volunteer with Meals-On-Wheels, I donate my time and money to Habitat for Humanity, I spent six months working for an NGO in a third world country raising funds and volunteering time to help AIDS patients. I care deeply about the planet and people living here.
Please, keep hating if that makes you feel better, but by doing so, are you not re-inforcing the right of others to do the same and put-down other people based on their race, creed, religion, color of their skin, sexual-orientation, etc?
Go ahead and hate me. I am far from perfect.
Learnalittleveryday’s arrogance privilege is leaking all over the page.
The only non-asshole response to finding out what a noose means is along the lines of, “OhmygoodnessIamsosorryIhadnoidea. I can’t apologize enough. I am so terribly sorry.”
On the other hand, “What, so am I supposed to apologize now?” is clear proof that the problem isn’t that you didn’t know, but that you’re an arrogant shit who doesn’t care.
Couple things, oh priveleged one above.
1. Racist =/= horrible person. Racist is a critisism, it means examine what you are saying.
2. A black person says that a noose is a racist symbol, just accept that it probably is. Backed up with people talking about lynching, you could probably say 1 1=2
3. “Priveleged” because you are white and male doesn’t mean that you also are oppressed in other fashions. Sounds like you didn’t get the trifecta, and “rich” didn’t get thrown in there as well. Doesn’t mean you also didn’t get priveleges that someone non-white and non-male didn’t. I’m a white chick from the middle class, I can recognize that “I’m exploited by the patriarchy” and “the rich are screwing me over” and “I have tons of white privelege and middle class” are not exclusive.
4. Please, put away your resume. I believe that you are generally committed to progressive ideals. No one is revoking your left-of-center card (if we have one- I keep missing the feminist conspiracy meetings- conflicted with lesbian abortion parties). The statement “I was unaware that the noose was a racist symbol” in context of your comment(s) made it sound like there was an unspoken “So it obviously isn’t” in there. And that, my friend, is an AMAZING amount of presumption.
5. When people respond with that comment with “that’s because you have priveleged ignorance” that means “You should probably accept that you aren’t the end- all, be-all of opression knowledge, and possibly you should examine that a little bit” not “You’re a horrible person”. Again, if someone accuses you of privelege, cluelessness, and racism, that isn’t necessarily an attack.
Wait, come back comment! I didn’t get a chance to spell-check you!
What Antigone said — It was the “should I apologize to someone?” bit that made your comment read sort of snide from my end, though maybe you didn’t mean it that way.
And yes, when we fuck up, we should apologize, so if you didn’t mean it that way, I apologize.
So who is the racist? The white kid who had not racial motive of the black kids who knew this and assigned racial motive anyway? Wake up America this is a case of amazing stupidity in the case of the offended. They knew his motivation yet played the race card for no good reason.
Where has critical thinking gone in America? Where is logic and reason? Making a race issue where there was none is pure emotion and ignorance.
The black kids didn’t assign a racial motive, but just because he wasn’t trying to make them feel threatened doesn’t mean they weren’t made terribly uncomfortable – how would you feel if you worked with a person who both had no idea about a way he would deeply offend you AND resisted ‘getting it’ when you tried to tell him in a way that wouldn’t be too confrontational? Should they have not discussed it at all with their bosses and their community? Leaders can’t get away with the didn’t-know-didn’t-care excuse. And they certainly need listening skills, which poor Gabe was sadly missing out on that day.
Race is a sensitive issue. These girls tried to tell Gabe that the noose was a bad idea, and he didn’t listen. The noose is loaded with negative symbolism for African-Americans, and of course there is going to be a contingent, especially on college campuses, that will protest first and ask questions later at the slightest hint of a possible hate crime.* Gabe did something terribly foolish that was easily misconstrued into something far more awful than he meant, and sure, he didn’t mean to offend. But, his leadership position at the paper means people expect better judgment from him, and he fucked it up in a way that brought down the wrath and meant he had to go. Too harsh? I’m finding it hard to think so: his major was journalism, he really should have known what a noose means to black people. It’s a major symbol tied to some very recent history; it was his job to know. At the very least, it’s his job to listen when people are trying to tell him something important, cough, cough.
*Not that this is a bad idea; I’m just saying they’re there.
I see freedom of expression and speech takes a back seat to out of context racial sensitive. I am glad to know logic and critical thinking are no longer needed in America.
Right, right, right. It is an Orwellian future we live in indeed when a white guy can’t innocently use a racist symbol as a bad joke without getting all fired and shit.
Do we not get this? Even without racial context, it was a bad joke. As in, not funny. As in, it is probably wildly inappropriate to joke about threatening to execute deadline-missers, even if you threaten them in a racially neutral manner. As in, Gabe experienced an unfortunate but complete lapse of judgment in a manner that happened to come with an extra-helping of backlash; this isn’t unheard of, it’s happened to people in far more important positions than him.
You can not tell me that minority coworkers have some sort of responsibility to make up for white guy’s complete lack of good judgment on the job. Gabe used a highly offensive symbol to make a bizarre point – surely there are funnier ways to joke-threaten your employees into making deadlines; he failed in the critical-thinking department, not the offended coworkers, who made a reasonable attempt to stop him from doing anything before it could become the issue they knew it would.
One of the race bloggers once had a post about how intention isn’t the same as action. You might not intend to harm someone, and still do (and still be responsible for that harm). ((I wish I could remember that post, it was pretty well written)). Racism isn’t just about “intention” it is also about ignorance, it’s also about cluelessness, and it’s also about not giving enough of a damn to listen to someone. So yeah, this guy was racist. Maybe not the Don Imus level of racism, and probably just the racism that comes from living in a racist society, but racist none the less. By the by, can we just get rid of the whole “card” thing? The “Racism card”? WTF is this, victim poker? Oh, poor guy lost his job at a COLLEGE paper. He can either go right-wing nutso and have a profitable job at wingnut site, or he could possibly learn something about this mess, and write a paper about his growth and get hired on and some other place. He’ll be fine.
A noose is a racist symbol? Funny without context I don’t see it; do you have any idea how many white people were lynched and hung in this country? Might as well say Jewish people should be offended by ovens while we are at it.
I agree joking about killing coworkers is not funny but why create and race issue where none exists. That is just as stupid as the bad joke.
I ask who is the racist; the guy who put no racial meaning in it or those who see every thing as a racial slur?
Thanks, James, for proving Kyso’s point…
I’M not the racist – YOU ARE for pointing out the racism…
I guess Buddhists are racist too; what the Nazis call the swastika is an ancient symbol for Zen in Asian culture.
Context is everything.
I guess Buddhists are racist too; what the Nazis call the swastika is an ancient symbol for Zen in Asian culture.
I think the arms are pointing in a different direction for the two things.
And someone who was using a swastika to mean Zen would have the responsibility of loading up the context, because most people in America would see “nazi” and they would not be crzy. Noose’s use as a racist symbol trumps noose’s use as a warning to submit your stories on time – once again, Gabe chose very, very poorly.
“Context is everything.”
Here’s the context: “Gabriel Keith, an assistant editor at the City College Times at Minneapolis Community & Technical College, used a drawstring from a hooded sweatshirt to make a noose, from which he hung a message about making deadlines in late October.”
A college-educated man working as an editor for a college newspaper at a college in an American city.
Not a somebody living in Indonesia. Not somebody with no exposure to the world. Not somebody whose mental facilities prevent true understanding. Not somebody with no education in American culture and history.
Sorry, but I’m not buying your argument…
And someone who was using a swastika
and of course I meant here in America. Or Europe, probably, too.
Is anyone else thinking of the South Park where the rabble, angry because Token’s family was richer than them, burned a giant lower-case “t” on their lawn?
“t? for time to go home? oh, my god!”
Joke threats are a bad choice in the first place; that alone will get a person fired in the real word.
However I am a little sick and tired to people assuming racism in everything. The complainers KNEW he had no racial overtone in what he did and yet turned it into a story about racism; that is so sad. It is sad commentary about race in America; most people in most places don’t think about racism today because they have grown up without it. I live in the DC area and grew up with friends of every racial background you can think of and had an African (I mean from Africa) step father and I put a noose hanging from my rearview in my car as a teen because I thought it was punk/metal/hardcore. Why would I think about Klan lynchings back then? That was a problem before any of us were born.
I hate the right wing trying to screw with the 1st amendment with their moral judgments but I also hate the left wing trying to silence speech through political correctness and jumping up and down on people for unintended offence.
There are plenty of people alive today who remember the 40′s and 50′s, when some of the most famous lynchings happened, but thanks for betraying your age.
And as I’ve pointed out, the noose is still being used today as a racially motivated threat. When people haven’t been using it that way for a few decades, then you can tell the black community to not get its panties in a knot every time a noose is blowing around without proper context; today, not so much. Sure, the noose is slightly more ambiguous than a giant burning cross, but it ain’t that much more ambiguous. There’s enough people who ‘get it’ that the ones who claim they don’t need to become more aware.
Helen said: “The only non-asshole response to finding out what a noose means is along the lines of, “OhmygoodnessIamsosorryIhadnoidea. I can’t apologize enough. I am so terribly sorry.”
Thanks for telling me how I should behave, how I should think, what I should say, etc. Hey, maybe you can get a job with the right-wing conservative nut-jobs trying to run our country. I hear they’re looking for a girl with your conviction.
“Thanks for telling me how I should behave, how I should think, what I should say, etc. Hey, maybe you can get a job with the right-wing conservative nut-jobs trying to run our country. I hear they’re looking for a girl with your conviction.”
Learnalittleveryday, it sounds like you haven’t been learning quite enough. Perhaps you are learning just too little every day.
How about “Learnaloteveryday”, so you can catch up with the rest of us? And in the mean time STFU…
Delagar: Maybe you could have asked me before attacking? Or would that have taken the fun out of it for you? And Antigone, you said: “Again, if someone accuses you of privilege, cluelessness, and racism, that isn’t necessarily an attack.” Is that your definition? So, you have your own definition of what it means to attack someone, kind of like someone having their own definition of what a noose means? You just proved my point. In this case, it means you can say all the stupid, hurtful stuff you want about someone and then not apologize, like Queen Helen dictated, because words (symbols?) have their own meaning for you. What a dumbshit! (I mean this in the kindest way- to me it means I like your passion and innocence.)
Seriously, what kind of contribution have you people made to making the world a better place other than your angry, hate-filled blog-postings. You guys are more to blame for what’s wrong with the world today, much more than anything Gabe Keith said or did in the newsroom that day. And your over-reaching, adolescent ranting and raving is making the story much bigger than it really is. You rant and rave like it’s your special privilege, but do nothing to make this world a better place. In fact, you make the world a worse place because anger, judgement and hatred are exactly what made a noose into a symbol of violence and repression in the first place. It’s the same human emotion, yet you have no problem unleashing yours on anyone that dares to offend your sensibilities.
Only instead of a noose to express your hatred, you use the internet.
“In fact, you make the world a worse place because anger, judgement and hatred are exactly what made a noose into a symbol of violence and repression in the first place.”
LALED, you REALLY put us in our place. (Wow!)
However, I’m pretty sure IT WAS THE LYNCHINGS that made “a noose into a symbol of violence and repression”. And since Gabriel Keith should have known (and probably did know) this, he’s still an idiot, and still deserved to be fired…
This sounds like the distinction between a tort and a crime. With a tort, if you cause harm, then you are held liable for the damage, whether you intended to harm someone or not. A classic example would be when a 4 year old plays a joke on her aunt and pulls her chair out from under her as she sits down; aunt breaks her hip; child, through her parents, gets sued and loses. The child didn’t intend to cause harm, but is held liable nonetheless. For a crime to occur, by contrast, there must be intent; no intent, no crime. The child obviously would not be guilty of battery for pulling out the chair, because there was no intent in any way to injure her aunt.
I would prefer a standard that takes intent into account when branding someone a racist. Did this guy intend to make a racist action? Kyso doesn’t seem to think so, but she still thinks his firing was just. I would disagree with this.
Should this guy have known that a noose is a racist symbol? Probably. But it’s also not shocking that someone born in Minnesota in, say, 1987, might not immediately make the connection with lynchings in the South 50 years earlier. Who knows.
I remember a few years ago a flight attendant used the “Eenie Meenie Minie Moe” saying to some black customers, it made the national news, and they sued the airline. It turns out the next line of the poem is “catch a nigger by the toe.” I remember the saying from grade school, but I had never heard the racist next line before. At the time it struck me a slightly absurd that the airline attendant was raked over the coals as a racist, when all the evidence suggested that no racism was intended.
So everyone should know a noose is a symbol of racism? Give me a break; Klan robes and swastikas are symbols of hate the noose CAN be when put into a specific context like the Jena 6 incident but the noose by itself is just a noose. Hanging has been used for what 10000 years as a form of the death penalty; even today it is on the books as a method in many states though it has not been used in something like 20 years.
Gabriel Keith should be fired for making even a joking threat to his coworker; that is not expectable in the professional world however this was not a racial issue and never should have been made one.
The real problem I have here is the assumptions people make, why do we assume racial intent instead of asking people what they meant. Certainly African Americans can make the point they have an issue with the symbol do to Americas past but to just claim it a racial symbol and all who use it are racists is BS. Are all cowboy movies now racist, is the bible now racist, and is medieval ligature and art now racist?
The elimination of debate and the use of CONTEXT in American is becoming out of control.
So to sum up what I have read from you guys; people who don’t understand African American cultural sensitivity to a noose are idiots but American ignorance of Buddhists symbols would be ok; seems hypocritical.
What lesson we should all learn here is no one understands everyone’s perspective and culture and we should communicate better and not just make accusations; but the writers of this blog seem to prefer being judgmental instead of communicating.
Gabriel Keith might have got it better if his coworker communicated a better context to him instead of dancing around the issue then filing a complaint.
Huh? Hey Mike it was anger, hatred, intolerance, judgement, etc that caused the lynchings. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to break that down for you,…
LALED, at least we both agree that THE NOOSE IS A POTENT RACIST SYMBOL, AND STILL HAS A LOT OF POWER TO HURT.
Which is why the use of that symbol by Gabriel Keith was so problematic, and his firing was an appropriate way of handling the situation.
I’m glad we’ve arrived at this consensus…
Mike Ess said,….”However, I’m pretty sure IT WAS THE LYNCHINGS that made “a noose into a symbol of violence and repression”. And since Gabriel Keith should have known (and probably did know) this, he’s still an idiot, and still deserved to be fired… ”
I love the part where you say Gabriel Keith ‘probobly did know’. Sounds like the same rationale Bush used to attack Iraq (he thought they probobly had WMD’s). Mike, someday you will probobly realize that contributing to an on-line discussion takes more than typing skills.
“Mike, someday you will probobly realize that contributing to an on-line discussion takes more than typing skills.”
…and someday LALED, maybe you’ll realize that arguing in America that American citizens above the age of three might not be aware of the pervasive existence of racism in America is just not plausible.
Racism exists, everbody knows it. Pretending that you couldn’t possibly know a noose was a racist reference is not going to cut it – any more than pretending that a Halloween costume consisting of blackface, prison strpes and dreadlocks couldn’t possibly be misconstrued as racially offensive.
It’s way past time that people step and accept their own racism. Demanding to be given a pass because of some lame excuse – simply because you are a member of the overclass and expect such privileges – is just not acceptable…
“It’s way past time that people step and accept their own racism.”
Have you stepped up to the plate and accepted your own racism, Mike? Yes, you have? Then why should I listen to a confessed racist like yourself?
“Then why should I listen to a confessed racist like yourself?”
seroj, you are SO DAMN FUNNY…or not…
Well, you do make the claim that all white people in America are racist, you are a white person, so you are a racist.
Why should I listen to a racist?
Mike? Oh shit, wait a minute, I had you on my radar but now I lost you on my screen, you just switched the discussion from that of a noose as a rascist symbol in this country to the ‘pervasive existence of racism in America’. Nice try.
Mr. Keith made a mistake and now you want to hang him for crimes against humanity, I guess you must be the leader of the angry lynch mob. Here’s some advice, put away your torch (and your moral-outrage) and go over to the Salvation Army. Pick-up a bell and start doing something POSITIVE to make this world a better place,…