@barrons
Spot on with what?
That they include a few facts with an obvious bias to play down racial incidents on college campuses? Then yes, they are spot on on that.
Interesting that you go to this website for your news tho. Even more interesting that you decide to post this one example of a fake incident. I wonder what you think then of real racial incidents.
@momofthreeboys
If stupid, racist and intimidating incidents did not occur as frequently as they do now then people would not have to have the “knee jerk” reactions that they do.
Also, how was the student supposed to know that it was not a noose? I’m glad that an investigation took place and that it was declared to not be a racial incident…this time.
College administrations have gone crazy seeing racism everywhere. I suppose it is just part of the hypersensitive PC culture at most campuses. They are very good at donning a particular lens and the lens du jour is the racist one. By that standard licorice is racist.
I cannot believe that infowars doesn’t violate the ToS against non authoritative sources.
@romanigypsyeyes the story was proved to be true by a local news source did you miss this link?
Uhhh because it was a new shoelace maybe? And maybe if they opened their eyes instead of having a panic attack it might have saved a whole lot of people and the president of the university from looking downright foolish.
I saw a picture of the shoe lace and it was not a noose knot - I’ll ask my Boy Scout when they get home today what kind of a knot it was but it certainly wasn’t a noose.
I get news from many many places. This one was linked from a reliable social media poster. BTW how many recent stories have the NYT and WaPo had to retract or amend lately?? My #1 source for facts and fair news is WSJ.
Exactly 3scoutsmom. You had a kid who didn’t know squat who did a knee jerk, a university president who over reacted before having any facts in fact saying the kid who reported the missing shoelace as courageous and some police who were probably laughing their butts off over the “case of the missing shoelaces.” This story was picked up all over so a lot of people got their grins yesterday.
There is something off about the attitude in some of these replies.
Here is what happened at Michigan State: a student saw something that looked like it might be a noose and reported it. The President of the University heard about it, was concerned it was a racial incident, and decided she should issue a short statement to remind the campus that the university doesn’t tolerate targeting individuals because of their race. (It shocks me that some posters find that inappropriate!!) The brief statement ended: "While at this time we do not know all of the details, the Spartan community can be assured we are vigorously investigating this situation. "
Within a few short hours the university had investigated and gave a clear and informative description of what had happened.
There was no “outcry”. There was no “rush to judgement”. Students weren’t violently protesting. In fact, one might even say it was a model response to this happening. It made students feel as if a complaint is taken seriously while giving the university a chance to do a further investigation.
And instead of being praised as the kind of model response I would be happy if my kid’s university made to any complaint, it gets attacked by people who seem to have some sort of agenda to make universities look bad. What was so terrible about the reaction?
There are two ways for a university to react when they get this kind of report. They can remain silent and let rumors swirl and students hear bits and pieces and wonder if there is a cover-up going on. Or they can issue a statement designed to reassure students that they take these kinds of complaints seriously, they do not have all the details, but plan to investigate.
And then the university can do a very timely investigation so that within a very short time they can tell the university community exactly what happened and life can go on.
Oh yes, I forgot that there might be some right wing news sources – the same ones who insist that 20 first graders who died in Sandy Hook never existed – who decide to use this to attack and sow anger.
Really? Has our country’s discourse really come to this? Where a university which is actually trying to do a good job is attacked for absolutely no reason except to score some political points?
Sometimes a shoelace will look like a noose. Sometimes a noose will look like a noose. That’s why you investigate.
It’s truly a shame that there are people jumping to attack this kind of response in order to score points in a fight that divides our country.
@momofthreeboys said:
“Maybe the traumatized student who found the shoelace can sue the shoelace manufacturer for their packaging that induced trauma…”
There was no mention of a student being traumatized. It’s not particularly funny to say something designed to attack a college student for reporting something that seemed like it might be something to report. I’d hate to think that students are afraid to report any incidents because the right wing will decide that simply saying that something is worth being investigated makes you the object of fun as a “traumatized” snowflake. That’s the kind of language that is unhelpful, especially when it is invented out of thin air.
With so many things going on in our country, why would anyone take the innocuous response of the university to this incident and try to turn it into some object lesson into terrible university administrators with “traumatized” students and “rush to judgements”.
The ONLY people who seem to be “traumatized” are some posters here and Sandy Hook-denying right wing news sites who believe that a terrible, terrible thing happened at Michigan State. It didn’t. Really, I promise you, all will be okay, Conservative students at Michigan State will survive this terrible trauma you believe they were subject to.
@observer12 a student found a shoelace that was not a noose and felt the need to report it as a racial threat. That’s bit over the top imho. It’s students like this that see racial issues where they don’t exist that detract from the real issues.
Speaking of “thin air” :
Can you pleasse site sourse for this??? You seem to be the only one "traumatized’ by this discussion.
So CBS News and the Lancing State Journal (part of USA Today) that are reporting this are “right wing” news sites???
I agree. This story starts with something true and then writes it up in an effort to inflame racial tension. They only tell the truth when the truth is the story they want to tell. Otherwise they make stuff up.
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/alex-jones
A student found something that looked like it could be a noose. That student reported it so someone else could figure out whether it WAS a threat or not. It was investigated and found to be just a shoelace. Case closed. Why are you so angry at a student for doing what students are supposed to do and telling someone in authority instead of making their own judgement as to what is a threat or not? What great harm came of it?
There is a saying in big cities “if you see something, say something”. It’s directed so that people are encouraged to report things that very well may be “shoelaces” or people’s leftover lunches. Do you know why? Because there is no downside to reporting things. Sure 999 out 1000 times – or even more – it’s a false alarm. Maybe police time is “wasted”. Or maybe even if it catches only 1 bombing in 10 years it is worthwhile. Surely you agree that there IS a downside to making people feel like they better not report anything unless they are absolutely positive it is a threat. Because they’ll be laughed at if they report it.
The outrage from the right about this incident is way out of proportion.
If you had read my post more carefully, you will see that I was responding to someone here who made fun of the student for being “traumatized” by the shoelace – despite there being absolutely no evidence of any feelings of “trauma”. The student reported something that may or may not have been directed at them. Within a few hours it was investigated and case was closed. Again, why do you find that to be such a terrible thing? This happens to be a very good system that worked exactly as it should have. And the only people making it into a big deal are people like you who have decided it is simply “over the top”. Why? Because it turned out not to be a noose? That is WHY you have someone investigate. The system worked perfectly. Let someone else who knows what they are doing figure it out. And they did.
The Lansing State Journal merely reported the facts. There is nothing wrong with the facts. Infowars and some posters on here want to convince us that those facts imply something is terribly wrong.
What is it the system that would meet your high standards? In my opinion, this system worked very well. And I find it odd that it is being attacked and criticized. If more colleges acted the way Michigan State did, I think we’d have far fewer tensions on campus. Listen to complaints. Inform people you are taking it seriously. Investigate. Give people a lot of information about what you learned so they feel confident that the investigation was thorough. I thought it was GREAT that Michigan State explained the entire incident in full. Sure, it made the Sandy Hook deniers at Infowars make them the object of derision, but it was informative to hear exactly what happened. It was the truth. It contained as many facts as possible. I couldn’t ask for much more from a university. Could you?
I always find it interesting when others try to tell those who have felt wronged how they should or shouldn’t feel. Personally, I would never tell someone or even contemplate, “Students like this see racial issues where none exists.” Who am I to discredit their feelings? Was I there? Did I witness the event? Do I know the intent & motivation of the person(s) who performed the act in question? Do I know anything about the person reporting the incident (i.e, their past experiences, their culture, or personal schema)? Who gave me the right to express the level of audacity to assume I know how that person should or shouldn’t feel? The fact that it was a “shoelace” is so not important.
What bothers me is that we don’t even know if a student DID feel “wronged” at all. For all we know he or she reported the incident because the person did not know for sure what it meant but thought it was very odd. It’s pure speculation (and in my opinion, provocation) for people to imply the student who reported it felt “traumatized”. And not very nice at all.
The n-word was recently written on Black students’ dorm rooms.
Fliers that say “Make America White Again” were all over campus.
Fliers that said Black men are rapists were all over campus.
The n-word and “free Dylann Roof” were graffitied next to campus.
One campus. One “liberal” campus. In one month.
So do students see racist issues where they don’t exist? Maybe. But if I’m outside in the daylight and something is causing a shadow, I’m going to assume it’s the sun that I see all the time rather than a spotlight following me around.
When you see something ALL. THE. TIME. it becomes entrenched and expected.
@observer12 My response wasn’t for you. Not sure why you thought it was…I will say that the student thought something was wrong in order to think, “this should be reported.”
I apologize. I thought your post was great and I meant to thank you and add to your thoughts, but I realize my response was very confusing. I’m sorry.
@romanigypsyeyes Yep, this is occurring at Tx St Univ…it’s an awful situation that keeps reoccurring there for the past 9-12 months. Not sure if it was this campus you were referring to. Definitely a school that is no longer on our list of possible schools because of all the issues.