Prometheus 6

Questions from people who would never hang a swastika from a tree. They got to talk about rappers, as we have come to expect.

Washington: Wait, are you and that one poster suggesting that hanging a noose in a tree was a crime?

Washington: When did nooses become racist symbols? When I was a kid we'd always make nooses in scout camp in Virginia to "string up the rustlers." It was a Western symbol with roots in all the Western movies we grew up with -- something dangerous that knot-tiers could make, but always about the Old West. Later in high school depressed friends would make them for what you'd now call "Goth" culture, but back then it was more Alice Cooper. About five years ago an African American friend said that nooses are "always about lynching." I never thought that my entire life and it's totally news to me. Is this a symbol with strong meaning in the South?

Denver: To the poster from Washington who didn't thhink hanging a noose could be a crime: The definition of criminal assault includes making threats that put another person in reasonable fear of imminent physical harm or death. It's hard to imagine a situation where hanging a noose from a tree while racially taunting someone would not qualify under that definition.

Darryl Fears: Thanks for the clarification. 

Huh?:"Yes, hanging a noose could be considered a crime." Excuse me, but as repugnant as that symbol may be -- it's still protected free speech. If you can't charge a black rap group for singing "---- the Police," you can't charge someone for making a blatantly offensive statements, remarks or speeches. That's nothing more than Orwellian punishment of thought-crime. As much as I despise what the ACLU has become, this is what they meant by defending the Nazi marchers in Skokie, Ill.

Darryl Fears: You can test whether hanging a noose is a protected form of free speech by doing it at your job. I certainly wouldn't recommend it. You might not like the consequences.