By adamg on Wed., 11/14/2007 - 11:11 am
Of course, Jaime Garmendia did so as part of his punishment for his Halloween costume.
Props to Channel 4 for illustrating its version of the story with a photo of a noose, because that certainly adds to our understanding of the issues involved.
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Comments
20th Century America
By Gareth
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 1:18pm
I think it's perfectly plausible that a student would find a teacher hitting her palm with a rope, a yardstick, or anything threatening. But maybe I'm just too old. When I was in grade school, the teachers did hit me, at almost every school I attended, public or parochial. A yardstick being beat into the teacher's palm as she paced the rows of desks meant 'Head down, try to figure out if I'm doing something wrong, hope Sister Theresa doesn't stop.' Do they really not beat the kids anymore?
this was an interesting
By POPS
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 11:25am
this was an interesting thread. I see the validity in arguments from both sides. But I will say that the context does matter. The student could have possibly watched a recent movie or read a book that featured lynchings. I am actually horrified of dogs because of the imagery from the civil rights movement. It's unfortunate when people are in such a rush to judge others. We all would be well served by simply pausing to assess the situation and start with yourself regardless of fault, guilt, or blame. It is much easier to say someone else doesn't get it. That could go for the teacher or the student and anyone that commented.
Who knew?
By Anonymous
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 12:50pm
I never realized what a racist Samuel Beckett was until I read these comments and put 2 and 2 together with his use of a noose as a means of auto-erotic asphyxiation in "Waiting for Godot"!
...or that Stephen King was taunting Southern Blacks by having Brooks use a noose to kill himself near the end of hte movie (old white man institutionalized by prison but released to an unfamiliar world and so he hangs himself in the halfway house). You'd think that Morgan Freeman might have taken exception to having a part in such racist overtones!
...and how about that insensitive Clint Eastwood!? In "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly" movie, I think he and his co-stars spend more time in nooses than they do with their feet on the ground! Good thing Jesse Jackson doesn't watch Westerns!
...sigh.
No
By adamg
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 12:58pm
If Brooks were a mean old bastard and was walking down his cellblock pulling out a noose from his book cart and swinging it when he got to Morgan Freeman's cell, that would be racism.
Ok, so?
By Anonymous
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 12:59pm
So...if Garmendia were a mean old Mexican and was walking around the MBTA offices leering at the black employees fondling the loose end of his noose when he got to their offices, *that* would be racism.
OK then
By adamg
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 1:02pm
Brooksie doesn't have racist intent. He just has a pet rope, which he likes fashioning into a noose and swinging around as he delivers books.
You don't think Freeman, in that instance, couldn't find that offensive?
Yeah, it's a stretch, because you don't tend to get to prison unless you're a mean SOB, so let's play another game: What's your ethnicity? Let's see if we can find something I could do that would offend you.
More difficult challenge
By Gareth
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 1:27pm
How about you do so unintentionally?
Oh, making it tough, eh?
By adamg
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 1:36pm
Obviously, we can't exactly re-create what happened back on Halloween at the T, but sure, specify the ethnicity and let's see if we can come up with something that I could do unintentionally that would still under up offensive.
Okay!
By Dia de los Muertos
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 1:40pm
WASP who grew up in Mexico and then a primarily asian neighborhood in California. I am only offended by offense itself!
Another reason black workers might have been upset by Noose Boy
By adamg
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 2:48pm
Noose left on T driver's seat:
Really?
By Anonymous
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 2:56pm
Does anyone else find these reports to be a bit of a noose-ance?
State-mandated hangings
By Anonymous
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 3:54pm
Delaware (not Georgia, not Alabama, but Delaware) held the last state hanging execution in 1996.
You could still be hanged in Washington state (by prisoner's choice) and New Hampshire (if lethal injection were to be found as "impractical" for your case/situation)!
Oh no, the racism!
What the hell is wrong with
By Anonymous
Tue, 02/12/2008 - 7:38pm
What the hell is wrong with you retards? Since when is it an absolute right in this country to not ever be offended by anything another person does? If you're so sensitive that seeing a person playing with a rope sends you into a panic then maybe there's something wrong with you and not the person who's innocently playing with a harmless inanimate object.
Why don't we just ban airplanes because they remind us of 9/11. And trains, because of their use in the holocaust. Let's get rid of all cowboy symbols too because of that insensitive cowboys and Indians game kids used to play.
Once you start legislating conduct to every minute sensitivity, then all we have is a bunch of people crying wolf and abusing the race-card for their own benefit. Develop some critical thinking skills, mongoloids.
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