N&O’s Sheehan & Community Silence

With two angry, grossly misinformed and racially inflammatory columns, the Raleigh N & O’s Ruth Sheehan helped launch the Duke lacrosse witch hunt and its massive injustices. ( “Team’s Silence is Sickening” and “Lacrosse team out of control” )

In her column today, Sheehan says its time for the community to make clear it won’t tolerate racism in any form. ( "We won't tolerate nooses" )

Here are extracts from her column followed below the star line by my commentary which takes the form of an email to Sheehan.

Sheehan begins:

It was little over a week ago that a toilet paper noose was found in a bathroom on the N.C. State University campus.

In the days since, we've seen a flurry of official activity, with the police investigating, Chancellor James Oblinger issuing statements of concern and District Attorney Colon Willoughby at the ready, eager to assist.

A part of me cannot help but cheer: Go Jim, go Colon. Round up the creep who produced this thing. . . .

At the same time, it is hard not to look at the official reaction on campus as a bit of overkill that, sadly enough, plays right into the perpetrator's hands. . . .

My first instinct: Flush it.

But I am brought up short by a quote from writer/philosopher/Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: "Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

Officialdom has had plenty to say about the noose at N.C. State. Students gathered Thursday night on campus. And busloads of residents from our area are heading to Washington today to rally for a federal intervention.

But what about the rest of us? What about a world, on campus or off, where a noose might be considered a joke?

There is nothing funny about this old racist symbol. Nothing cute. Nothing clever.

In small ways and large, this is a time for the community to make that clear.

In individual conversations, in water fountain chats and in community gatherings, we need to reiterate that racism is not tolerated here in any form.

There is no audience here for a noose of any sort, even a pathetic one made of toilet paper.

That is not what we're about. . . .

In Raleigh, the symbol of the noose might be powerful, but it is tissue-thin in the face of a community that will not allow it to hold sway.

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Dear Ms. Sheehan:

You no doubt recall that on May 18, 2006 racists shouted threats, including death threats, at a young man outside and within the Durham County Courthouse where he’d gone to participate in a proceeding following his indictment for rape and other felonies.

The racists – members of the New Black Panthers Party and others – were so bold that in a crowded courtroom they shouted “dead man walking.”

Britian’s The Guardian reported the young man at that point "blanched."

The community response to the young man’s torment was silence.

The President of Duke University where Reade Seligmann was a student said nothing critical of the racists and nothing supportive of him and his family.

No Duke trustee, top administrator or senior faculty member spoke out. Neither did any Durham public official.

The community’s religious and civic leaders? They were silent too.

And you didn’t write a column about the threats and the silence.

The community would never tolerate white racists shouting death threats at a young black man. And we shouldn’t.

The community would never tolerate black racists shouting death threats at a young black man. And we shouldn’t.

But Reade Seligmann is white and the racists were black. So there was silence.

Elie Wiesel has spent a great part of his life encouraging us to face up to past wrongs so we can mitigate them as far as possible.

Wiesel believes that's essential if we’re to prevent similar wrongs in the future.

I hope someday you write a column that reminds us of May 18, 2006.

Sincerely,

John in Carolina