A New Racial Crisis? I Doubt It!

Recently, in the news, we have seen a spate of racial incidents being played out in diverse places across the nation. Most of these incidents involve the display of a noose. Here are just a few of these incidents. A noose was found hanging from the door of a black professor at Columbia University, again at the University of Maryland, in a police department locker room in New York, and at a bus maintenance garage in Pittsburgh. It all started in Jena LA., where black students were charged with beating a white student after nooses were found hanging from a tree. The question that arises here is this: Should we view these incidents as indicators of a new national racial predicament or should we see them as simply a few nasty people playing a game with a deck a few cards short of full? My personal view is that it is the latter.

I believe these repulsive incidents are the work of a few malevolent copy cats who get a kick from the brouhaha they stir up. So, to the extent that television and other media over and over talk about these incidents, they play right into the hand of the weirdos who do them.

Because of the terrible history of lynching in America, it is easy to understand the anguish and anger these displays produce. Here again media helps to propagate those emotions, by showing these incidents over and over.

In some cases, these actions violate local laws. Where this is the case, the perpetrators should be found and prosecuted. Local media would naturally report the case. However, it would be better if our national media simply left the thing alone. Covering these incidents, as they have, elevates them to a level of importance they simply don’t deserve.

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