Phi Beta Cons

Another Noose Found at UC San Diego

Yawn . . .

That’s the collective response of the 6,000 students taking summer classes there, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The thin piece of rope, crudely fashioned into a loop, was found July 21 in a stairwell in Mandeville Hall, an auditorium that hosts recitals and other performing arts.

So far, police have no leads on who might have created the noose and are seeking help identifying witnesses.

It is the latest incident with racial overtones to emerge on the campus in recent months. Another dangling noose was found in a campus library in February, drawing condemnation and sparking a protest rally attended by hundreds of students. A student later admitted to and apologized for hanging the rope and was suspended. . . .

The most recent incident has drawn little attention, said campus spokeswoman Judy Piercey.

The girl who confessed to the first noose-hanging, back in February, wrote an anonymous letter to the school paper explaining that she was herself a “minority” and had no racist intentions. Here’s how she explained herself:

I found a small piece of rope on the ground earlier in the day. While I was hanging out with my friends a bit later, we tried jump-roping with it and making it into a lasso. My friend then took the rope and tied it into a noose. I innocently marveled at his ability to tie a noose, without thinking of any of its connotations or the current racial climate at UCSD. I left soon after with one of my friends for Geisel to study, still carrying the rope. After a bit of studying I picked up the rope to play with, and ended up hanging it by my desk. It was a mindless act and stupid mistake. When I got up to leave, a couple hours later, I simply forgot about it. This was Tuesday night. Three days later, on Friday morning, I found out that the noose had been found and construed as another racist act on campus. I felt so ashamed and embarrassed, and the first thing I did was call the campus police and confess.

In response to this non-hate crime, the UCSD started doing multicultural back flips, launching a new campus group called “Join the Battle Against Hate.” Never mind that there wasn’t any hate to begin with.

Real racism is worth speaking out against. But all this hype and manufactured outrage simply deadens our sensitivity. Haven’t America’s race mongers heard of the boy who cried wolf?

Unfortunately, phony racial hysteria has become a mainstay of college life in America. All too often, “hate crimes” are intentionally staged by liberals who want to “bring attention” to America’s racial problems — a trend I detailed in a post back in March. It doesn’t matter to them if that racism is real or imagined.

No wonder the kids at UCSD have stopped paying attention.

Nathan Harden — Mr. Harden graduated from Yale in 2009. He is currently writing a memoir of his experiences as a conservative student at Yale.
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