Being black in America is to be the product of a rich and incredibly diverse history. Our culture is vast and complex and no two black people have lived the exact same experience. However, certain stories, symbols, and their meaning are quite commonly known amongst us and evoke the same reaction—no matter our age or experience or where we live. A hangman’s noose is one of those things.
Nooses produce a visceral fear of harm in the bodies and hearts of black folk. Now, there are some people out there who continue to promote the fallacy that nooses are not symbolic of anything. After all, they look similar to the kinds of knots used in sailing, fishing, and other activities. But to continue to deny the noose’s history and meaning to blacks, in particular, is ahistorical.
Nooses are a reminder that mobs and vigilantes in this country, along with the state, executed thousands of people by hanging. And while not all of those people were black (Mexican-Americans, Native Americans, and the Irish were also victims of lynching), blacks accounted for an astounding three-fourths of the documented 4,700 people killed by hanging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is this painful and gruesome history that black people call to mind when they see nooses. And while nooses have been used to intimidate blacks forever, they seem to be making a comeback in Trump's America.
It was the beginning of the night shift last Wednesday at the United States Mint in Philadelphia, a secure facility that manufactures money, when a white male coin maker strode across the factory floor to the workstation of an African-American colleague. He was carrying a piece of rope.
The rope had an official purpose: to seal coin bags once they were full. But the worker, who operates the machinery used to make coins, instead looped and twisted it into a hangman’s noose, according to Rhonda Sapp, president of the Mint workers’ union.
Upon hearing about this incident, officials conducted a day-long investigation and decided that the white worker needed to be kept off the factory floor to protect him from retaliation. The irony here is that he was the one being protected. What about the rights of his black coworkers, who deserve to be protected from acts of racial hatred and aggression?
This was not a harmless gesture. To present a black colleague with a noose is full of meaning—it serves to intimidate and provoke fear. Its a reminder of a time in history when whites used to have lynching parties to cheer on these hangings and kill blacks with impunity. The white worker was placed on administrative leave the following day, after being escorted out of the building. This, however, is just one in a series of recent incidents involving nooses.
Nooses, long a powerful symbol of bigotry and hatred directed at African-Americans, have been found hanging from a tree outside the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall; in a gallery at the National Museum of African American History and Culture; outside an elementary school; and on the campus of American University [...]
Nooses have also been found in recent months at a middle school in Florida, at a high school in North Carolina and at a fraternity house at the University of Maryland. Also in Maryland, two 19-year-olds are being prosecuted in the hanging of a noose from a light fixture outside a middle school.
This is not coincidence. Hate crimes are on the rise and have been ever since the election, and the Ku Klux Klan is also increasing its public presence. “Robed Klansmen appeared at a gay pride march in Florence, Ala., last month, and the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are planning a rally in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.” By electing Donald Trump as president, America normalized this open kind of hatred and bigotry and now racists are no longer in the shadows. It’s doubtful that they ever were in the shadows, of course, but now they have license to put their vulgarity and vile beliefs on full display. And before we get lulled into the false belief that children might know and do better than the racist adults around them, it’s important to note that the presence of nooses also extends to schools.
Several of the recent noose cases appear to be aimed at specific people. At Wakefield High School in North Raleigh, N.C., someone hanged a black teddy bear from the roof, with a message aimed at the principal, Malik Bazzell, who is black. Beside the doll was a sign saying, “Make Wakefield Tripp again.”
The Raleigh News & Observer reported that the sign referred to Tripp Crayton, the white former principal, whom Mr. Bazzell replaced in 2015.
So here we are, in 2017, with nooses randomly cropping up at museums, workplaces, and schools. They are an ever-present reminder of the fragile state of race relations in our country. They are also a reminder that despite some progress, we can’t afford to become complacent about the fact that white supremacy is all around us—everyday. These are not just isolated incidents: they are a part of a pattern of racial supremacy designed to send a message to blacks to know our place or risk our lives being snuffed out at any moment by whites who wish to harm us.
This pattern is a part of the ugliest, darkest parts of our country’s history. And it looks like history is repeating—or better yet, continuing—itself.