A San Diego Union Tribune columnist, Michael Stetz, explores the confounding question of how it is that one of the nation’s top academic institutions can have among its students people who are so stone deaf to history that they can’t even grasp the frightful symbolism of a noose. Here’s an earlier blog on the incident.
On such noose was found in UCSD’s main library last week, and the student who left it there, writing anonymously to the school paper, said the connotation of it as a symbol of hate never occurred to her. Which others find unbelievable. “Nooses are regularly left as icons of intimidation,” Stetz quoted Jonathan Markovitz, a UCSD graduate and author of the book, “Legacies of Lynching: Racial Violence and Memory.” “They are the single most vivid symbol of racial terrorism and oppression, as they not only invoke but celebrate the power of the mob.”
The column goes on to offer the comments of Freedom Center CEO Don Murphy, a UCSD grad who happened to be on campus last weekend to make a presentation on Black History Month. Stetz quotes Murphy on what he thinks is the cause of the historical ignorance: serious gaps in education about our national past.
All of which underscores the relevance of the Freedom Center’s current exhibition about lynching, “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America.” Perhaps, if it could be arranged, UCSD could bring the exhibit to campus and help its bright, eager students learn something about a dark chapter of American history.
Tags: hate crimes, lynching, nooses, UC-San Diego, Without Sanctuary
Posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 7:57 am in Commentary, Exhibits, News.
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