It’s just toilet paper

First off, let me say that I’m not racist. But also let me say this: Racism may not be dead, but it is not limited to just African Americans. Hispanics, blacks, Asians, Germans, French, men and women and yes, even whites are victims of racism sometimes. Just as it is wrong for men to get hired above women purely because they are men, it is wrong for any equal opportunity law to force a firm to hire women or minorities purely because the business doesn’t have a federally established ratio.

The idea that a noose symbolizes the “white establishment” or the quest for “white purity” is like saying that the British flag is an anti-American symbol because England fought us in the Revolutionary War. The British flag is just a piece of fabric, and this noose is just a piece of toilet paper. It is only anything else because we as individuals see it as that.

You see, that’s the beauty of symbols, they only mean what each of us want them to mean. If people want it to mean racism, that’s what it’ll mean. Whoever made that noose could have been doing it absent-mindedly or he or she could have been doing it because of suicidal thoughts. It does not have to be racist; it could be something much deeper. But also keep this in mind; before any Africans were hanged in America, plenty of white settlers and even Indians were hung too. Not just black people were hung with nooses.

No one can realistically expect the University to do any more to find whoever made this thing. The thing itself is the only evidence found. The trail is dead. Any more resources from the University would merely be a waste. Also what would any of us ask of the culprit? An apology? Surely no one expects the person to be tried for hate crimes.

Ok, so I will say this, if it was tied in an attempt to be a hate crime, that is wrong. But considering the information we have about this incident it is very unlikely that it has anything to do with racism at all.

The University has done all it can. Let’s not get up in arms about a piece of poo paper. Let’s move on with our lives and try to get past trivialities like this.

Jesse Triplettjunior, arts applications