It seems noose hoaxing has a life of its own. I speak, of course, of hyperbolic claims of nooses harkening back to the days of racist lynchings, found largely, but not exclusively, on college campuses.
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In 2017 at Michigan State University, a noose was discovered in a residence hall to the horror of “minority” students. The brave university president issued a brave statement:
A student, believing the item had been left there to intimidate minority students, reported it to campus authorities. ‘I want to recognize the courage it took for the student to report this incident,’ MSU President Lou Anna Simon then said in a statement.
She continued:
MSU Police and our Office of Institutional Equity were immediately notified, and both promptly began investigations. I want to be clear: This type of behavior is not tolerated on our campus. No Spartan should ever feel targeted based on their race, or other ways in which they identify. A noose is a symbol of intimidation and threat that has a horrendous history in America.
While at this time we do not know all of the details, the Spartan community can be assured we are vigorously investigating this situation.
The vigorous investigation revealed it was a packaged shoelace. Someone found it on the ground and hung it on a doorway so its owner could find it. Its missing twin was found outside the dorm.
Graphic: Twitter Post
There was the 2020 Bubba Wallace NASCAR hoax. Assigned a garage at a racetrack, Wallace found a noose hanging from a garage door! No fewer than 15 FBI agents rushed to the scene of the hate crime and discovered—wait for it—it was nothing more than a pull-down rope for the garage door, like others at the track. It had been hanging there for at least a year, used by many teams who inexplicably thought it was a garage door pull-down rather than a noose.
In 2021, Central Connecticut State University was in an uproar because a construction company building a parking garage nearby hung a large American flag from a crane on a steel cable with a construction loop at its end. Told it was nothing more than a cable loop common to construction cranes, campus lunatics demanded it be removed and suffered enormous psychic trauma when it wasn’t.
Many racist hoaxes are found to have been committed by black people, who, when caught, explained they were trying to “start a conversation about race,” or something equally inane. Despite all these horrific racist incidents being exposed as hoaxes, they just don’t stop. The most recent occurred at Stanford, on April 1 of this year:
Stanford University officials do not appear to have made progress on identifying a noose reportedly put up on campus.
Campus police reported “terrorism involving a hanging noose and noncriminal hate violence between 8:00 a.m. on March 3 and 3:30 p.m. on April 1” at the Old Union, according to the Stanford Daily.
The wording suggests the noose could have been hanging for a month before anyone bothered to report it.
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Officials would not directly answer questions from The College Fix about the evidentiary criteria behind the terrorism classification, whether any suspects were identified, or if student conduct sanctions are underway.
Luisa Rapport, director of media relations at Stanford University, stated via email: “The investigation into the incident referenced remains open.”
“We encourage anyone with information to contact Stanford’s Department of Public Safety,” Rapport wrote.
Apparently, Stanford’s maintenance department isn’t on the ball when it comes to taking down such obvious symbols of America’s racist history. But then again, this isn’t new for Stanford:
In 2019, a “noose” was found on Stanford’s campus, but it was later determined that it was most likely a rope used to hang ornaments.
In 2021, school officials alerted students to a number of “potential nooses” hanging on campus.
“Two cords with loops that may represent nooses” were discovered by a student during a trail walk, according to an email from Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access and Community Patrick Dunkley and Dean of Students Mona Hicks.
Dunkley and Hicks noted that while the cords might have been part of “abandoned swing or rope ladder,” they could not be certain “whether the ropes were deliberately fashioned in the shape of nooses.”
The school never disclosed whether the ropes were actually nooses.
Imagine that.
As usual, the demand for racist hatred far exceeds the supply. The law of supply and demand applies, so when no actual nooses can be found, someone is going to supply them, even if they’re not really nooses at all.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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