And the sun goes away
According to an e-mail from Teachers College President Susan Fuhrman dated 3:35 PM today (and now WNBC), a hangman’s noose was found on the office door of an African American faculty member. Her full message is reprinted after the jump.
A meeting started at 9:00 PM in Earl Hall for student reactions, and tomorrow (Wednesday) President Fuhrman will hold an open meeting for students, staff, and faculty at 3:30 PM in Grace Dodge Cafeteria at Teachers College.
To the TC Community:
The police were here this morning because a hangman’s noose was
discovered on the office door of one of our African American faculty
members. The incident has been reported to the New York City Police
Department (Detectives Bureau of Manhattan) and is under active
investigation by the Hate Crimes Task Force.
The TC community and I deplore this hateful act, which violates every
Teachers College and societal norm.
Anyone who has any information about this incident is urged to
immediately contact (anonymously or otherwise) any of the following:
The 26th Precinct Detective Squad (212 678-1351);
Crime stoppers (1 800 577-TIPS);
John DeAngelis, Chief of Public Safety (212 678-4180);
Janice Robinson, TC General Counsel and Executive Director,
President’s Office of Diversity and Community (212 678-3732).
Susan Fuhrman
9 October 2007 @ 1:54 PM · 110 comments
on 
What is wrong with this place?
It isn’t necessarily anyone involved with Columbia, since the building was probably open to the public. It’s still bad any way you look at it.
If this was a primarily political statement wouldn’t you do this on the Morningside Heights campus.
I think it’s some weird revenge beef. TC isn’t exactly known for its KKK chapter
FIRE has been with TC for having a “social justice” part of the curriculum: http://www.thefire.org/index.php/case/725.html
I don’t know of any other controversies regarding TC.
Thank you. Somehow I doubt FIRE themselves might have done it, but maybe some deranged cronie of theirs did.
TC requires a Columbia ID when you walk in.
Well that’s why I said “probably,” because I wasn’t sure how Teacher’s College works. So yeah, what I thought was an outside chance of it being an outsider seems a lot less likely now.
shut the fuck up. holy shit.
Somehow I don’t believe this, like it’s going to turn out to be some cable that draped from the ceiling or something. Anyway no real Columbia student would have the balls to do this, probably some pissed off anti-Amedhahoweveryouspellhis fuckingname folk
-or its SHOCC trying to start shit
in reply to #3.
Or FOX News junky college republicans if you prefer
it is, for fuck’s fuckingsake
And also, the government felled the twin towers on 9/11. Because they were trying to start shit.
it is just really sad that this shit still goes on. I truly look forward to the first commenter who has the temerity to justify this act.
No one thinks you did it. Don’t worry. But for reals, why would someone do this at Teachers College of all places. Just seems weird to me. Any thoughts?
WHERE DO I GO TO SCHOOL THIS IS INSANE.
If you have taken out a loan to go to Teachers College, then YOU ARE INSANE
pulling shit like this
Okay, we will.
Sincerely,
The Racists.
Sounds like something CUMB would do. You know … trying to be all controversial. Idiots.
been -> beef
I find it disturbing that TC would say this act “violates every… norm.” That is one of the most intellectually irresponsible, mealy-mouthed education weakspeak statements that I’ve heard in some time. Fuhrman should be ashamed of herself for being so inappropriately gentle in response to hate and intimidation.
She doesn’t really have any evidence that it was any one thing or another. What would you have her say? “KILL WHITEY?”
Yeah, well this way she can avoid offending racists who carry out their actions in accordance with societal norms.
who thinks the fox news commentators who wouldn’t care less if the jena six got the chair are still going to come down on columbia for an act likely committed by some twisted outside vandal?
…take a survey of all the local hangmen and see which one is missing a noose.
Then we can get to the bottom of this.
leave CUMB out of this. we’re one of the most diverse groups on campus. we’re not racists, and we don’t have any beef with TC. Guess again, asshole.
Maybe this is some feeble-minded GS Unity stunt
I used to think that SHOCC was exaggerating and there would not be much racism at a place like Columbia, but through my experience here I’ve been starting to think that I was wrong…
What racism have you personally experienced?
Unless, of course, you are a white, heterosexual male or an Israeli of any creed or color
I heard it was The Jester.
I heard you were “the receiver” on goatse.cx.
Sounds to me like you watch a lot of gay porn
who is columbia’s p.r. guy? and is he just curled up in a corner sucking his thumb at this point? i mean, the shit-storm controversies just keep coming.
you mean THE ADMINISTRATORS?
Bollinger?
Quigley?
Sitting duck admins?
who in this day and age knows how to make a noose? i mean–besides depressed goth kids. seriously. that image is sooooooooo passe.
and this also makes me want to punch everyone in the face.
can we not go ONE week without this shit?
scouts
i never learned how to make a noose in boy scouts. why? mainly because of stupid shit like this and because kids might actually use it to hang them or their friends.
then again, i am from new york. apparently a ton of people do know how to make them.
wow i am appalled at some of these responses clearly these are mostly white males which is why they seem to think that racism is some theoretical term. why is it so hard to believe that someone affiliated with columbia would do this? have we already forgotten about the whitey kill blackey cartoon in the FED or the racist, anti-semetic, homophobic graffiti in ruggles the yr b4 last? i mean really. open ur fucking eyes.
overreacting. I love how this place is supposed to create graduates that are ready to go out into the world and make a difference. Ok so there was a noose. Some jackass did this because they either 1) Really are racist and want to make a statement/impress their other racist friends or 2) This person had a personal beef with the woman and pushed the cheapest and easiest button to push. Either way no one died or was physically harmed. Regardless, there will no doubt be an insane overreaction by SHOCC et al. In many parts of the world there are people at the other end of Kalashnikov rifles that don’t give a rats ass what you belive in or if you are offended by their actions. If anyone from this school wants to survive outside of the cushy bonds of Amsterdam and Broadway they should grow a thicker skin. While this was in fact the more aggregious of racist incidents on campus it amazes me how people get their panties in a bunch over some fool spraying/writing a bunch of ignorant shit all over a door/bathroom. Everytime you make a big deal about it you give the offender exactly what he/she/they want. Just denounce it and move on. No need for more “reeducation” classes for all freshman as SHOCC would love to implement.
also
“wow i am appalled at some of these responses clearly these are mostly white males which is why they seem to think that racism is some theoretical term”
congrats. thanks for stereotyping “white males.” that makes you no better than the people who don’t see what’s wrong with the noose.
Can we know who this faculty member is? Is the person up for tenure?
This faculty member could’ve put the noose up her/himself to gain some self-righteousness in the eyes of everyone else.
And no, I’m not racist.
If you’re not racist, you are certainly a complete fucktard.
Oh yeah, but the way:
We attend an Ivy League school, you know, the social elitism shit? Even if we’re the most liberal way.
But c’mon, doesn’t anyone ever realize the contradiction between being the most liberal place and it being mandatory to read dead white men (Core)?
I know a lot of people who are anti-racism and pro-equality, very liberal or socialist, etc. but who sometimes come across as very elitist in their everyday actions/speech (how they talk about money, assumptions that everyone can afford certain things that they can afford, etc.)
Oh MY GOD, rich people act like rich people; a school with a core curriculum asks you to read dead white men!
of course, it’s not surprising that the core would get dragged into this…
“But c’mon, doesn’t anyone ever realize the contradiction between being the most liberal place and it being mandatory to read dead white men (Core)?”
no. a million times no. you can’t be critical/deconstructionist without understanding what you’re criticizing or deconstructing!
you can’t even read afrocentric books like “black athena” without having a basic understanding of the classics.
as tc ‘requires’ an id, the guards are pretty lax. still, i think it was done by someone who knew the person and it is not an ‘outside job.’ my guess would be very disgruntled student.
it’s clearly a copycat incident of what’s been happening after jena 6. there was a similar incident at a police department on long island with white officers and their black superior.
definately a shame that it happened that’s for sure.
bollinger and his free speech and ‘symbolic speech’ certainly has opened a giant can of worms this year.
I only mean to suggest a possibility. Can you really eliminate this possibility?
[in whiny female voice]
Why shouldn’t there be more research about the root causes?
No. Here are some other possibilities that we cannot eliminate and therefore should immediately discuss:
1. The second gunman did it.
2. The faculty member did it in earnest because he/she is racist against him/herself.
3. You are intelligent.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,300597,00.html
http://www.wnbc.com/news/14303832/detail.html
Also, #44: get real. Yes, in some parts of the world people will shoot you with a rifle without caring if you’re offended. Luckily for us, this isn’t one of those places. Horrible things happen all over the world but it doesn’t mean we should lower our social standards here. Also, presumably an incident such as this would be a big deal outside of Columbia as well. The whole ‘Jena 6′ controversy is happening in one of the most racially divided places in the US yet people were still outraged.
fuck racists.
look, yes you’re right. “fuck racists”. it’s true. at the same time, for each of my 7 semesters here there’s been some fucked up incident that gets everybody hyperventiating over racism. at the same time there are probably about 100 racist incidents happening outside CU but in manhattan every day. i don’t think we can walk out everytime someone says or does something insensitive. or at least not when the weather is bad. in the spring we can start walking out all the time. no wait. but seriously, the world is full of insensitive people doing insensitive things. i don’t know that each of these is worth stopping the presses.
security cameras? are we in the dark ages?
Nobody likes this kind of shit except A. racists and B. the various groups here that love these kinds of controversies. In my experience whatever of A there is, is more in terms of underlying biases than overt acts of hate like this one. But there is lots of B. Despite the fact that almost any Columbian would decry this cowardly action, we will be subjected to barrage after barrage of absurd rhetoric centering on the HUGE PROBLEM OF COLUMBIA RACISM.
I, for one, wish this school spent less time on ridiculous spectacles and more time on education. Yeah, we read dead white guys. But we’re pretty diverse for an Ivy, historically speaking, and the sheer multitude of groups devoted to diversity makes the argument that we’re not aware of “diversity issues” laughable. Look, we don’t need courses in diversity. This is one asshole looking for attention, or with a beef with this specific prof. Let’s not make this bigger than it is – that’s what he/she/it wants.
I hope they catch the mother-fucker and hang him.
Deserves to be executed for a college prank? Yet the Jena 6, who beat someone up so badly he will forever be in pain, deserve to be free?
Interesting value system
college prank this was. (What do you think a noose is?!? A death threat, maybe?)
And the kid that was beat up… he’ll always have his shotgun to defend himself. Blacks in the south might not even have legal defense.
Please don’t make this a south vs north thing. I am tired of hearing about the Jena 6 from people that don’t know anything about it.
If this is a just a beef, can we show that the noose is a specifically related to her race? THat is to say, what if it were just a death threat. What if this were a white faculty member; how would the reaction differ.
I understand the implications involving lynching and, more specifically, the “White Tree” incident in Jena, but it can’t hurt to consider it a coincidence, if only until more evidence comes to light.
the historical connection between lynching and african americans is SOMEWHAT strong to be a coincidence.
Not nearly as strong a coincidence as its connections to vigilante justice, or even legal executions.
I’m not doubting a stupid racist attack as the most likely probability, just encouraging an open mind. Shit at least I’m not throwing around conspiracy theories. Where’s Weinberg when you need him?
After reading the WNBC article, I disagree with myself. If she taught social justice classes, it’s probably an attack against one of those views.
Maybe it’s that chick with herpes, getting back at the Nubian prince who allegedly gave it to her. But in typical Columbia fashion decided to make a broader statement…
god fucking dammit.
am I going to have to walk through “you are entering an unsafe space” pickets again?
I frogot, this was a year ending in an odd number, and therefore a race incident year.
I’M NOT GIVING ANY MORE JOBS TO WHITE PEOPLE
its pretty appalling that you can sit through years of college classes as part of the intellectual “elite” and still emerge less tolerant than a child. frustrating and sad, but ths problem is never going to go away. i guess it’s easier for some people to feel more comfortable in the world of comfortable abstractions than in that of tolerant interaction. idiotic.
which is more repulsive…. this incident or the bwog responses….
You did it.
On another note, have you noticed that WNBC’s reporting is even worse that BWOGs?
IT WAS COLUMBIA FOOTBALL WOOOOO!!!! WE GET OUR OWN LINE IN JOHN JAY SO YOU CAN SURE AS HELL BELIEVE THAT WE CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK WE WANT TO YOUR DOOR!!!!!! WE WILL ROCK THE FUCK OUTTA QUAKER JUST LIKE WE ROCKED THE SHIT OUTTA THIS SCHOOL!!! WOOOO!!!
…it was left by a BWOG staffer or sympathizer to draw attention away from their most recent lapse in judgement.
http://www.realknots.com/knots/noose.htm
Noose knots for any all to gaze at but never, never tie…
columbia sucks
rass di fosse dem tek hovah
why teacher’s college, though? Is this *obviously* a teacher’s college personality’s doing?
Wasn’t there a similar incident at the University of Maryland recently?
what is up with the fucking football players getting their own line at john jay?
i know you have to practice tackling or linebacking or fondling each other or whatever it is that takes *so* much time out of your schedule, but some of us have to do actual schoolwork.
they didn’t understand 75% of that sentence – you need to spell that stuff phonetically.
1) People should be aware that like half of the posts belittling the incident are coming from one IP. Use your tracking. Fucking trolls.
2) For the non-trolls who hold that position… seriously, do you think its a coincidence this keeps happening at Columbia? Those walkouts are the only connection?
Honestly? If a student or faculty member is doing it, I have a serious feeling it’s trolling along the same lines as the poster above. I have met some racist individuals here, but no one serious or moronic enough to sincerely utilize a noose.
3) No one is belittling the ‘incident,’ although until some more information emerges about said incident we shouldn’t assume the worst now, should we?
Are there a bunch of klansmen all over Columbia, or within 100 miles of Columbia? I’m not buying. This is most likely some kind of hoax.
three simple rules
1)don’t do racist stuff
2)punish severely the .01% who break #1
3)no posturing, whining, or protesting. JUST IGNORE THE STUPID PEOPLE. DON’T LET THEM WIN. if this one lady is in danger, nypd is on it. the rest of you are going to be FINE. are we stupid enough to think that some prezbo program or multi-cultural seminar is going to convince the tiny, tiny fringe of racist nutters to quit it? it’s not gonna happen, so condemn severely and proceed to ignore.
Stuff like this always makes me think of the Dead Kennedy’s “Holiday in Cambodia”
[same as #83]
as for the idea that it “keeps happening” at columbia…one incident every year constitutes a miniscule proportion of the student body. broad-based responses cause pain for the normal people and fail to change the true wackos. i just want to pre-empt that awkward, self-righteous, demand-for-new-columbia department/program/NSOPevent/bureaucrat phase.
Racism exists. So does stupidity. Even in this hallowed little enclave.
Here’s the professor who was affected, according to WNBC’s update:
Madonna Constantine
Professor of Psychology and Education and Director of the Cultural Winter Roundtable on Psychology and Education
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/faculty/index.htm?facid=mc816
Cultural competence in counseling, training, and supervision. Mental health issues of people of color in the United States and immigrants. Vocational issues of adolescents and college students of color.
Whether this will be Jenna 6 or more along the lines of the Nifong Incident remains to be seen…
Perhaps the assailant was one of her “cultural competence” patients.
Her latest publication:
Racial Microaggressions against African American Clients in Cross-Racial Counseling Relationships.
I totally agree with you, #85. A few “bias incidents” do not point to pervasive bigotry, nor are they grounds for collective soul-searching.
this just proves that columbia not = insulated environment with no contact to the outside world.
there are racists, and they make it through columbia doors. it’s that simple.
the response is to continue to combat racism in the world at large, not to start pointing fingers at every non-minority student on campus, reeducate, disrupt all our lives.
PLEASE EMAIL
bollinger@columbia.edu
copy and paste this news story with the sentence,
WHY THE FUCK HASNT THE ADMINISTRATION RESPONDED TO THIS??????????????????
see bollinger condemnation here
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/?q=node/27326
i guess she’s got some macro-agression to study now
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/microaggression/
Maybe if weren’t so easy for one person to commit one act like this and send all of the touchy-feely PC folks on campus into a full-scale tizzy, he/she would go back to just being bored or whatever their problem is. After the protest over the racist men’s room graffiti last week, I figured more trolling would be on the horizon soon. And here it is.
Just to remind you: This is NOT a controversy. A controversy is when something is actually controversial (you know, like, you can fucking debate it?). Nailing a noose is EVIL.
Evil is getting together a pack of your friends and chasing someone into traffic because of the color of their skin.
Evil is raping and burning innocent young woman just because she was kind enough to hold the door open for you.
You know what the best response to this kind of bullshit is? NONE! Don’t give the asshole the satisfaction of watching us agonize about our “community values”. This shit doesn’t change anyone’s mind on anything. Obviously it’s a cowardly, shameful, hateful thing to do. If we can find out who did it, we can punish him, and I support doing so. Until then, let’s get on with our lives!
Not comparing incidents, but:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerri_Dunn
Kerri Dunn (found on Gothamist)
my first guess would have been that it was some student gone pissy about midterms… but according to the TC schedule, she isn’t teaching any classes this term..
it’s gotta be someone who knows her. doors that belong to black people look exactly like doors that belong to white people.
she’s involved with clinical psychology and everyone i’ve known who has taken an interest in clinical psychology has been completely NUTS, so it’s probably a student in her department.
If it was a faculty member who did it, imagine the black students in the offender’s classes. They must have suffered terrible grades for no reason.
You’re a very creative and paranoid individual.
It was Quiggles! He’s frothing at the beak!
You know what they say…
No noose is good noose!
It’s amazing that none of the reports on this incident have included any
skepticism from Columbia staff or students. Either they’re too afraid to
speak out, or they’re exceedingly stupid. Given the “tensions” being whipped up by Jena 6 media zealots, you have
to wonder whether the school or police would reveal (or be allowed to reveal)
the real perpetrator of this charade.
Racism = Ratings!
I don’t really buy this ‘endemic racism’ theory. It’s either bogus, a bad prank, or a personal score.
Regardless, I hope they catch the perpetrator.
The spirit of SDS and The Weather Underground lives on in the guise of this manufactured crisis. Take a look at how Columbia grad Mark Rudd portrays himself and his fellow 1960′s Columbia terrorists in an avuncular light here:
http://www.markrudd.com/home/why-were-there-so-many-jews-in-sds/
Columbia students, please read this self-serving article and think on it a bit. My hope is that some of you will wake up to who, and what ideology, is pulling the strings and is manipulating your perceptions.
“Racial tension” has always been guided and exploited by those who stand to gain the most from it. A careful read of Rudd’s brief memoir of his radical days might give rise to an examination of who, and what ideology, is promoting idiocies such as the outrage over this piece of rope and the ersatz “furor” over the Jena 6.
Left vs. right has little meaning to these puppetmasters; note that Rudd pays homage to neoconservative guiding light Leo Strauss in the same paragraph where he praises Marx. Destruction of the pillars of traditional society was- for Strauss and Marx and Rudd- the overt and sometimes covert goal. Please ask yourself: Qui bono?
–Richard M. Weaver
http://www.antiwar.com/stromberg/s022701.html