A noose was found hanging from a tree near Mid-Campus drive on the K-State Manhattan campus last Friday.
On the K-State Today website the University President Richard Myers stated while the intent of the person who placed the noose is unknown the effect on the K-State campus was immediate. The noose was quickly removed, but not before it was seen by many on campus, including families visiting for Junior Day. Myers stated, ” It is a poor reflection on our campus community when a well-known symbol for hatred shows up in such a public way.”
Myers said there may be some who don’t understand the emotional impact of a knotted cord in the shape of a hangman’s noose. According to the Anti-Defamation League: ” The hangman’s noose has come to be one of the most powerful visual symbols directed against African-Americans, comparable in the emotions that it evokes to that of the swastika for Jews.”
Myers noted if there are those in the K-State family unaware of the power of those negative symbols, it falls on all of us to teach each other. He said if you don’t understand reach out to one of K-State’s African-American students, faculty or staff to ask why this act is intolerable.
The University President stated, “Once again, we cannot let the acts of a few define all of us. The K-State family needs to unite in our voice against all forms of discrimination. Hopefully as we contemplate these disgusting acts and the impact they have on our family, we’ll grow stronger in our commitment to treating all the K-State family with dignity and respect.
On April 24, Holocaust Remembrance Day, a poster with an anti-Semitic message was found taped to a utility pole near Ahearn Fieldhouse. At that time Myers noted that type of message is unwelcome at Kansas State University. At that time it was also reported that there had been a series of random messages found on campus in recent weeks, small in number, but each targeting a specific group of the K-State family. The University’s LGBTQ community was disparaged in one single-page flyer and African-American family members targeted in another.