Prometheus 6

"Nooses are more prevalent," says EEOC chair Naomi Earp. "The noose has replaced the N-word … as the choice if you want to threaten or intimidate someone."

Racial harassment cases rise sharply
By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY

Cases of racial harassment filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission increased 24% last year, a time of racial turmoil that included the Jena Six controversy and an outbreak of noose displays.

At the same time, state and city lawmakers have stepped up efforts to make it a crime to intimidate someone with a noose. And the Justice Department, which set up a network to link investigators reviewing noose incidents, has indicted a Louisiana teen on hate crime charges for dangling a noose from his pickup and driving past demonstrators after a protest in Jena, La., in September.

"Nooses are more prevalent," says EEOC chair Naomi Earp. "The noose has replaced the N-word … as the choice if you want to threaten or intimidate someone."

The number of racial harassment filings at the commission, which investigates workplace incidents, increased from 5,646 in 2006 to 6,977 in 2007. The annual figure has more than doubled since 1991. The EEOC does not break out charges involving nooses.

Earp says the EEOC has not studied why the spike occurred, but she thinks the Jena case, in which six black teens were charged with beating a white classmate, contributed.