The Noose: “The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back”

By Jolanda Jones

The majority of non-Blacks may never understand why the issue of a noose on public display will forever be offensive. This article is not an indictment of the Houston Fire Department. I love and respect the men and women of the Fire Department. In fact, I recently wrote an article which was published in this very publication about that respect and admiration.

In other words, this article is about a larger issue: The Legacy of Nooses and the Importance of Honestly Dealing with this Very Sensitive and Difficult Issue and Why We Must Use this Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back to Ensure Non-Hostile Work Environments in the City of Houston! The noose, a symbol of hatred from America’s dark past, has resurfaced.

But this time, it is not in the east Texas towns of Vidor or Jasper, or the small towns of Mississippi where the Black population could be less than 1%. It has resurfaced in 2009 in our culturally diverse city of Houston. To some, a noose is a symbol used for strength in securing boat lines.
Yet, to many others, it is a disturbing reality accepted by many as the symbol of lynchings in the Old Jim Crow South. The incidence of hanging nooses reveals an ugly truth about race relations in the United States, and this ugly truth was obvious at Houston Fire Station 41. The noose incident has been well documented and widely discussed.

In fact, it has been discussed so much that Mayor Bill White had a Mayor’s Report on the passions and respect related to it on June 24. Furthermore, Council Member Melissa Noriega, Chair of the Public Safety Committee, will have the focus the agenda of her next committee meeting, on this very subject. That Public Safety Committee Meeting is set for Monday, July 27, 2009 at 3p.m. at City Hall.

June 23, was not just another ordinary day of Public Session at City Hall. Although the noose issue was not on the agenda or the regular order of business, community leaders, ministers, concerned citizens, and members of the Houston Black Firefighter’s Association came to City Council in full force and made their opposition known and their voices heard regarding the incident. With respect to the noose, for any individual to act as if there is no legacy associated with it, is insulting.

It is the “ostrich with its head in the sand” effect, a sheer act of willful blindness caused by pure and simple artificial naivety. There is literally no excuse for anyone residing in the Deep South to not be aware of the historical context of this region, especially in Texas, the last state to actually free the slaves.
Malachi Crawford, Assistant Director of the Department for African America Studies at the University of Houston, weighed in on this divisive topic, “No one would act as if someone leaving open the locker and having a swastika symbol in their locker did not carry a historical legacy or tradition that would offend someone of Jewish heritage. Why is it that people of African descent are always positioned or perceived as being historically emotional and supersensitive? [emphasis added]” The swastika originates from Hinduism; however, we have associated this symbol with modern day negative connotations of the Nazi Party, as well it should.
Some believe that Blacks look for racism where racism doesn’t exist; that they have a chip on their shoulders and they need to get over themselves. However, unless one has experienced a “day in the life” of a Black person, one cannot truly fathom the harsh realities. Yes, White’s were hanged with a noose, but Blacks were lynched.

Hanging was a very common form of capitol punishment for heinous crimes. Blacks were lynched just for being Black, an inescapable reality and subjugation by no choice of their own. Onlookers would watch a man being burned and mutilated before he was hung and sometimes pose for pictures with the body.
If people had a grasp of what really happened, they would understand the power of the symbol of the noose. The noose is a blunt instrument of racial intimidation because of what it represent(s)(ed).Having a rope with a knot in it is protected under the First Amendment in some instances although displaying it gives off the implication of a painful past for U.S. citizens of African descent.

The paradigm shifts when the context is in the governing and delivery of services in the City of Houston. It ceases to be a free speech issue and morphs into a hostile work environment. I understand that the issue of discrimination in the workplace may be rather complicated. By way of explanation, some people have made zero tolerance, in other arenas, code word for firing or expelling students from school, etc., disenfranchising people.

While I respect the intent of the proposed ordinance that was drafted June 3, 2009, for the Fire Department, meant as a response to deal with the noose incident, it is not zero tolerance. There is too much subjectivity.
If we can have zero tolerance for smoking a blunt or weed, we need to have zero tolerance for symbols which create a hostile workplace. It is not super-sensitivity to feel uncomfortable or angry or distracted or hurt or whatever word you feel is appropriate when you hear words or phrases like “nigger” or “wet back” or “jew someone down” or “chinks” and so on. In fact, I do not. Instead, I used them for the guttural affect or basic repulsive instinct or shock they have on most humans.
If you had a negative gut reaction to these words; it’s for the same reason that these types of words and symbols are just wrong in the workplace. Whatever ordinance we draft must meet Title XII requirements. I have set up meetings with various groups who have worked in this arena far longer than me: the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP, and LULAC, among others.

With enough diverse heads and legal minds, we can come up with an ordinance which passes constitutional muster and will make this city better. As diverse and culturally-driven as Houston is, we must think twice about what we say and display in the workplace. Hate kills as was seen by the Black security guard killed in the Holocaust Museum by a racist.

Complaints of bigotry within the workplace are nothing new, but I am calling for a zero tolerance policy for words and symbols of hatred for all city departments. Overt racism is a choice, and ignorance is not an excuse to escape discipline.
We value the citizens of Houston input and participation. This issue is not going away. Citizens and city employees are entitled to non-hostile working environments and services.

This is the opportunity for positive change. The noose is not about the Fire Department alone. It is about positive change for the entire City. It is the straw that broke the camel’s back in Houston.