A NEWS EDITOR at a Minnesota college newspaper was fired after he hung a noose in the newsroom. His message was to get work done in time, and the noose was a joking threat. Some, however, thought the noose in the newsroom was racist.
The student says he was completely unaware of the racist connotations of the noose, and he knew nothing of the noose-inspired tension in Jena, Louisiana.
"I am definitely aware of it now," the fired student says.
The noose hung only briefly, and when he was made aware of the connotations, the student removed the noose.
Should he still have been fired? Is his ignorance an acceptable excuse? Or is this yet another example of why people need to have an understanding and appreciation for a world beyond their own?
18 comments:
Firing the guy was a complete overreaction. He if he honestly didn't know about the connotation it's not a big deal at all; should have just told him and that be the end of it. Instead people have to make everything a big deal to make their lives more interesting. This should never have made it past the person telling him not to do it and the fact that it did get this far that it's in the news just goes to show you how much people like to bitch and moan about stupid, trival things.
IT is totally absurd that this guy was a news editor and he had no idea what a noose represents. When questioned he said he doesn't read the news. I just can't believe he was a news editor and he totally missed the whole Jena story. As a white male his ignorance is not terribly unusual. But if he is ging to work on the school newspaper he has an obligation to learn about the reality and history of other people.
I think it's a lie that he didn't understand what was going on in Jena, but at the same time I don't think he hung the noose with the intention of offending anyone. If he took it down when he realized people were offended then he shouldn't have been fired.
Forget being ignorant about Jena 6... Is it possible to pass a 7th grade history class and not understand the historical relevance of a hanging noose? Some white kids in Louisiana did not invent the thing.
His lame ass excuse makes his intentions all the more clear. Should he have been fired? I don't care; but perhaps, now, he has time to read the news.
As a newsman, especially with what we've learned about the power of a noose, he should've known the implications of doing this.
Definitely deserved to be reprimanded.
How is it in any way possible that a NEW EDITOR could ever make the claim that he "was completely unaware of the racist connotations of the noose"...You have got to be kidding me.....Hanging a noose is IN NO WAY A JOKE...That's like hanging a picture of a swastika and calling it humorous......He deserved to be fired...
no this kid should not have been fired and people need to stop being such babies about small stuff in this world, geeze.
-todd miller
yeah dude lynching was totally a small thing.
lol at the comment above..meanwhile...yea I think the guy deserved to be fired because of his ignorance...He works in the news..He should know what's going on in the world...
~Lana Adams~
I hate it when people feel the need to pull out the race card for everything.
I hate it when people are completely ignorant of the news. The guy had not heard about the situation in Jena?
Seriously?
This is why we have current events questions on the tests. A journalist needs to know what's going on in the world. We need to know a little bit about everything.
The actions of the fired news editor may not have been racist, but they were certainly stupid. I'm not sure I would have fired the guy so much for his insensitivity as much as I would have sacked him for not knowing the news.
He was the news editor. Ug.
Read. Watch TV. Listen to the radio. Learn.
- George (the teacher)
Professor, you forgot to mention to read your blog.
Not only does he deserve being fired, but if he is a journalism major he needs to get kicked out of the program.If he doesn't know about current events, he doesn't belong in Journalism.
The whole thing is idiotic. One, he definitely knew about Jena. He was only saying he didnt to play down his culpability. We do it to our parents, pretendin to know less than we do thinkin we can get off easier. In his case that backfired. Equally I dont think that he meant it as being anything that was racist, and it was purely intended to get them workin.
Should he be fired? No. Still, kinda shoulda suspected it wouldn't be cool.
There is no doubt in my mind that he knew what the noose represented. He was just trying to deny it and hang it to rile people up, and he did. It was a dick move, but I don’t think he deserved to be fired, but reprimanded. It’s different when it’s an incident in the news room because it doesn’t have to be publicized.
The noose does not just represent lynching. There are slews of phrases and expressions and references to the noose that has nothing to do with black people. The term hang `em high only makes me think of criminals; and up until this whole Jena incident, the connection between nooses and black people wasn’t very prominent in my mind.
So because of this, I don’t think it’s right to use anything that has the connotation of violence against a specific group of people. No threatening people with guillotines, sickles, anything to resemble a cross, bayonets, ovens, etc. This is stupid. Take the damn thing down and continue with your lives. News about people in news oftentimes, is not news.
With articles like this, can anyone really blame people for not trusting the media? The EDITOR of a paper, was unaware of the Jena 6 situation, you're kidding me, right? I hate the whole race card thing too, but ignorance is a completely different thing.
Now if Jena 6 wasn't so prevelant in the news lately and all copy cat situations going on around the country wasn't being covered, I would have excused his stupidity in realizing the significance of a noose. Because coming to Temple and being in contact with different kinds of people, it is shocking to realize what people don't know due to their background and how they were sheltered from certain things.
Yet, there are hate crimes popping up on the news more than ever and as the EDITOR of a NEWSpaper, and saying 'oh, i don't watch the news," I think he did deserve to be fired. He isn't doing his job!
Losing his job because he may be a racist, no. But failing to be a good journalist.
What an ass, he would've failed this class.
-Myriam Wilson
I'm surprised that the news student, who I presume is a journalism major, didn't remember the Columbia University incident with the noose in October. That is almost an identical setting, almost and their was serious backlash. I also don't think he was a racist but just really uninformed.
If he didn’t know about the noose incident and Jena6 maybe he should have gotten fired since he clearly is oblivious to the world around him and therefore how can he be a productive editor anyway?
Um. Even if by some miraculous coincidence this man had lived his life without ever coming across and racial-noose reference, he still should have been fired because hanging a noose just isn't funny. If he hung a fake gun from the ceiling, would that be a cool joke?
-Caitlyn
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