September 30, 2008

University Disciplines 4 Students for Hanging Effigy of Barack Obama

Four students at George Fox University, in Oregon, have confessed that they were responsible for hanging a cutout image of Barack Obama from a tree on the campus last week, the institution announced in a statement on its Web site today. The university withheld the students’ identities, citing federal privacy law, but said it had taken disciplinary actions against them “up to and including immediate long-term suspension.”

A university employee discovered the cutout, along with a sign referring to a scholarship program that benefits minority students, early on September 23. University officials and student and faculty leaders have released numerous statements since then condemning the incident and supporting diversity efforts on the campus. —Charles Huckabee

Comments

1. American dream indeed. Racism is alive and well no matter what anyone says to the contrary.

   — IGI    Sep 30, 10:31 PM    #

2. IGI: I agree. It is an illusion to think or believe that racism is no longer a big issue in this country regardless of the fact that people outside the deep South have been dreaming otherwise.

   — akm    Sep 30, 10:53 PM    #

3. I guess this will give the federal government an excuse to go in and take over Oregon. Appears the school has addressed the issue.

   — Cicero    Sep 30, 11:12 PM    #

4. Does anyone doubt that racism is alive? But the issue at GFU was in all likelihood about politics, and the means by which the attack was made was a racial reference—in this case, by the suggestion that Senator Obama wouldn’t even qualify for the university’s aid program to assist minority students. Don’t take a simple-minded approach to the story; the “Act Six” reference has a local context that’s not immediately apparent.

   — RJS    Oct 1, 05:37 AM    #

5. No matter how you try to spin it, it’s racism.

   — Ray    Oct 1, 07:49 AM    #

6. If you give any credence to the U.S. News & World Report’s college ranking, in 2008 GFU ranked 20th out of approximately 1,400 in the Best Colleges survey.

   It is difficult to evaluate these kinds of incidents. It may have as much to do with politics and the upcoming presidential election as it does with race. On the other hand — and I’m sure I will be summarily tried and convicted of bias for saying this — I don’t associate openminded of any kind with predominantly white Christian schools.

   — Georgia teacher    Oct 1, 08:23 AM    #

7. “George Fox University—Oregon’s Christian University since 1891.”

   What kind of Christianity are they teaching these kids?

   — Yan Xishan    Oct 1, 08:31 AM    #

8. “Does anyone doubt that racism is alive?”

   YES, and some people take Obama’s very candidacy as proof of racism no longer being a major problem in this country. ‘Cause if ONE half-black guy made it to the nomination then surely programs like affirmative action are entirely obsolete.

   When people say “racism is no longer a problem” what they mean is “I haven’t noticed racism as a problem.” Well duh you haven’t noticed it. When racism is subtle/covert instead of out in the open and you’re white, you will not notice it. And that is the biggest problem of it all.

   — Katherine    Oct 1, 08:36 AM    #

9. George Fox is rolling in his grave! It is he who gave us the great Quaker teaching,“To see that of God in every man.” May Quaker tradition and practice guide these students and their mentors to discover their hatred and be transformed as truly educated and enlightened persons free of fear.

   — Kristen    Oct 1, 09:01 AM    #

10. Do you think that maybe, just maybe the issue here has more to do with students getting special scholarships based on the color of their skin than racism?

    — Fred    Oct 1, 09:13 AM    #

11. Racism is alive and well. Obama got the nomination because over 9o% Blacks voted for him —they did not vote for Clinton even though Clintons have done more for Blacks than most Black leaders have. However, the incident at GFU is deplorable —that’s racial hatred which must not be tolerated in a civilized society. Univ. administration took the right action.

    — Sam    Oct 1, 09:18 AM    #

12. Uh, Fred, no.

    — BertW    Oct 1, 09:18 AM    #

13. Way to go, “Quaker” institution! George Fox himself just created a little black hole from spinning in his grave. I agree – any way you spin this, it comes off as racist. I’m hoping it’s merely a result of poor judgment and knee-jerk attention-seeking, but somehow I doubt it.
    OK, I just repeated what Kristen said, but my mind was blown by this story. I’ve worked for Quaker institutions for the past 10 years, and this TOTALLY floors me beyond any craziness I saw come out of North Carolina.

    — JJ    Oct 1, 09:18 AM    #

14. As sad as I find this whole tale, I am most disappointed that it took place at an institution that openly espouses Christian values. We could wish for greater values outcome. That said, I wonder if the event would in any sense be better if it had been at a state school – or an Ivy. I am certain, based on what I know about GFU, that the board, the faculty and the administration are at least as distressed as we are at the events. It is not just that it happened at their school, and it makes them look badly; you know they are embarrassed! It is that such behavior really does challenge so many values that are at the heart of what they represent as an institution. People are genuinely hurt. Like parents whose children make wrong decisions, they will grieve. We would be horrified if it took place at any school; sadly, the fact that it took place at a faith-based institution suggests some connection with closed-mindedness, etc. Frankly, it may, but I doubt that helps this discussion at all. Racism exists. And students from even the best institutions — even at institutions that genuinely value “equality of souls” — will find their way into schools and retain certain prejudices. Is GFU to blame for accepting such students? Or for not rooting out such prejudices from its students? If students were perfect in the first place, there is a whole raft of social ills that would not exist on campuses.

    — Karl    Oct 1, 09:25 AM    #

15. Racism certainly does still exist. It always has, and it always will, as long as the human race still exists. I challenge any of you to tell me where racism does NOT exist. Surely, it exists in the Middle East. It exists in Asia as well. It exists in every society. It is a part of the human experience.

    The question is not whether racism is still alive, but whether it exists on such a scale that it cannot be overcome with a little bit of effort. I say that in today’s society race, national origin and gender are not significant obstacles to success. What IS a significant obstacle to success for many is the fear that there just may be someone out there who wants to “keep me in my place,” so I’m going to act defensively toward everyone not like me. So, maybe its still there, but it no longer is a force strong enough to destroy. Nowadays it is the FEAR of racism that destroys by convincing some people that the deck is stacked against them, they’ll never make it, so why try.

    Having said my piece, I’ll also add that anyone who hangs someone in effigy – whether it be Barack Obama or George Bush – is an idiot and ought to express their disagreement in a more civilized fashion.

    — FB    Oct 1, 09:29 AM    #

16. I think most folks here are missing the point. This isn’t just about Senator Obama or the single issue of racism. It is about the implicit threat to the minority students currently on campus there. Are these kids to think it is just a joke? Or are they meant to perceive it is a barely veiled threat to their personal well being?

    Either way, the threat to these kids safety and the institutions milquetoast
    reaction is unacceptable. How do you study and succeed in such an environment? Never mind thrive? I think about it from one simple perspective. What if one of these kids were my child? What if it were your child being threatened? How would you feel? Do you really think the response befitted the real horror of what these cretins did?

    The university took action up to and including long term suspension? That is a joke. The perpetrators should be stepping up and facing the consequences of their actions. They should be expelled permanently and made to attend anti-violence classes or face the charges being on their adult records.

    — Linda R.    Oct 1, 09:40 AM    #

17. So sad…. This YouTube link is a positive, fun offset—http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfq4lgjIv2U

    — gail king    Oct 1, 09:40 AM    #

18. Anyone here remember the First Amendment? No doubt festooning a tree with a dangling image of Obama was nasty and obnoxious. The Bill of Rights, however, makes no exceptions allowing the punishment of nasty and obnoxious utterance. That, indeed, is the core of its wisdom.

    Yes, I know—a private institution is not necessarily bound by the First Amendment, in a legal sense. But the disdain of George Fox University (whatever the hell that is) for basic principles of liberty of expression makes that school look a helluva lot worse than the young imbeciles who hung the Obama cutout.

    — Fossil    Oct 1, 09:46 AM    #

19. Wow, this is a lot more racist than Obama writing in his book that his grandmother is a “typical white person”

    — fg    Oct 1, 09:56 AM    #

20. Fossil: Riiiiiight. Burning crosses? Freedom of expression. Signs in bar windows that proclaim “No blacks, no Irish”? Freedom of expression. Whispers of “there goes the neighborhood” when the brown family moves in? Freedom of expression.

    Gotta defend that freedom of expression!

    — WG    Oct 1, 10:04 AM    #

21. Sam,
    Obama received the nomination not because 90% of blacks voted for him. He received the nomination because a large number of “Americans” voted for him from their belief that he is the better candidate. Despite some views, blacks do not vote primarily based on race…they are not that selfish. Even give all that “the Clintons have done for blacks”, blacks, like other Americans, desire a president who they believe is better fit to take on America’s problems, which are many at the moment. Besides, even if 90% of blacks voted for Obama it still would not have been enough to win the nomination as blacks only make up approx. 14% of the American population.

    — MN    Oct 1, 10:05 AM    #

22. Fred, yes, it has more to do with racism than with scholarships. Did you never hear of lynching? fg, for godsake, calling someone a typical white person is hardly equivalent to visually suggesting that a black man should be hung in the manner that black men (and some women) were strung up on trees by angry mobs for the most minor offenses, for decades. Are you so defensive that you can’t see that? Go read some history.

    — Beth    Oct 1, 10:26 AM    #

23. On the thread of whether or not Blacks voting for Obama explains his success… last I checked, only a tad over 13% of the population was Black or African American. Statistically, its not logical that Black voting alone could be THE factor, or perhaps even a major factor, in Obama’s popular success. Although it seems logical that race plays a factor both ways for him (some are more attracted, others less attracted, because of his racial profile), in the end there has to be other things at play.

    — HIED doc    Oct 1, 10:26 AM    #

24. “George Fox University—Oregon’s Christian University since 1891.”

    This illustrates a problem with today’s so-called “Christian” institutions and churches. Too much of the time they teach INtolerance in regard to beliefs, politics and respecting the opinions of others. None of those common positions are Christian at all.

    — ap    Oct 1, 10:46 AM    #

25. I teach at a small university in Indiana. It would never happen here…but that is probably what my counterpart at GFU said about his students.

    — Joseph Bell    Oct 1, 10:55 AM    #

26. Dear WC (#20);

    Your deep thoughts on free speech rights somehow fail to convince me: alas, I still prefer Milton, Voltaire, Jefferson, Mill, and Brandeis to the author of:

    “Fossil: Riiiiiight. Burning crosses? Freedom of expression. Signs in bar windows that proclaim “No blacks, no Irish”? Freedom of expression. Whispers of “there goes the neighborhood” when the brown family moves in? Freedom of expression.

    Gotta defend that freedom of expression!”

    Wouldn’t it be nice, WC, if everyone was restricted to saying whatever it is you happen to agree with? A solipsist’s paradise!

    But let’s analyze, one by one, the expressions of opinion which fail, in your authoritative view, to enjoy First Amendment protection.

    Burning crosses? Oh my, I hate to tell you this, but that’s fully protected speech (as long as you burn the cross on your own lawn, not someone else’s).

    Signs in a bar window? Well, you’re right in this instance, in that commercial speech falls under a different category.

    Whispering “there goes the neighborhood”? Protected, indeed, even when shouted rather than whispered. This may make you and me feel bad about our fellow-citizens, but our discontent doesn’t license the state to shut them up.

    Try, for once, to contemplate the notion of “free speech for the thought we hate”. It may prove enlightening.

    — Fossil    Oct 1, 10:57 AM    #

27. I have no knowledge of GFU, but the idea that it is the 20th highest ranked college out of 1400 is laughable (no matter what US News & World Report says). Although research universities are often beleagured by many conflicting forces, every single one of them provides an education that is superior, in every meaningful respect, to a place such as GFU. I doubt that GFU should even be considered a university. An insignificant parochial college with racist pseudo-christian students? Yes, indeed. A university with comprehensive academic programs and selective merit-based admissions? No.

    — rocinante    Oct 1, 10:58 AM    #

28. Christianity has a wonderful history in this country, but what has its present become and what will its future be if the fundamentalists and neo-cons continue to be its most outspoken and widely heard members?

    — Debra    Oct 1, 11:13 AM    #

29. #25,

    I hope that comment was meant to be a joke. If not, you need a lot of help.

    — FB    Oct 1, 11:14 AM    #

30. This reflects horribly on the school. GFU needs to do something huge to overcome this in my eyes. So far, they haven’t done it.

    — runyr    Oct 1, 11:14 AM    #

31. Fossil (#27): You missed my point. Of course I’m well aware that all the examples that I gave are fully protected examples of free expression.

    My point is that there is more than one lesson to be taught here. Rather than teaching the rather simple “you can say what you like – it’s protected” lesson, it seems GFU is teaching the “our community is opposed to deliberately offensive speech” lesson. Which of course they are entitled to do – it’s then up to the individuals concerned whether they want to be part of that community or not.

    Note that a big reason for protection of freedom of speech at the government level is that people typically don’t have a choice as to whether or not they want to be a part of that “top-level” community.

    — WG    Oct 1, 11:43 AM    #

32. I understand Liberty University has offered scholarships to these GFU miscreants to transfer, a transaction from which both insitutions will benefit.

    — case hardened    Oct 1, 11:46 AM    #

33. Taking that ever-present broad-stroke Liberal brush to paint an entire university based on the foolish acts of four students is disappointing. To hear constantly and consistently that Barack is BLACK and ignore that he is only half-black is also disappointing. Dare we ever speak the TRUTH and call him mulatto — which is exactly what he is when it comes to race!!! That is not intended by me to imply good nor bad, but simply to present it factually.

    — GT    Oct 1, 12:19 PM    #

34. Ditto #1 and well put!

    — AH    Oct 1, 12:38 PM    #

35. I am constantly amazed by what I read in these posts. I rarely respond because the “conversations” spin so far out of control. However, #28 takes the cake. S/he knows nothing about GFU but finds its ranking laughable. Well, I know a little bit about rankings having been on the tenure track and/or a tenured professor at two IVY institutions and a west coast IVY. The issue is debatable but we might treat all such rankings as laughable without doing great injustice to civilized life. But people like #28 are no laughing matter.

    For the record, I am a black American and I am no more or less upset by students hanging Obama in effigy than I am when they hang G. W. Bush or anyone else in effigy. The figurative killing of those with whom we disagree is despicable. Put simply, the effigies of #28 and all those who jump to the conclusion that GFU is a cauldron of “racism” are safe in my neighborhood.

    — The Jayhawk    Oct 1, 12:54 PM    #

36. Come on… The students did a stupid, immature thing, and the institution handled it. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

    — Tableau    Oct 1, 01:01 PM    #

37. #25, you wrote:

    “Obama will fix this. A new day is dawning when the tables will be turned and you people will know first hand what we have experienced.”

    I totally agree. Let’s start by enslaving all the straight white christian males—those with the same chromosomes as the boring white people back in the day who first questioned and fought against slavery during a time when slavery went unquestioned in the rest of the world. I suggest enslaving in the U.S. first the present Quakers (only the straight white males, please—no people of color or womyn, thank you), those presumably with chromosomes most similar to the Pennsylvania Quakers—that would best reflect SOCIAL JUSTICE and would be SOOO cool…

    — whatup    Oct 1, 01:05 PM    #

38. These posts make me almost as sad as the actual incident. Is racism alive and well? Of course it is. The incident at GFU is proof of this. But are we, as a people, more diverse and accepting and less racist than our humiliating past? Yes, we are. Obama – black or mulatto – is proof of this. Both things are true. Can we still have “free speech” while a private university exercises its right to punish its students for a clearly harmful and embarrassing expression of overt racism? I would suggest we can – freedom of speech also covers those who speak out against such things and those who, within their legal purview, exercise their rights as a private organization.

    Why is it that our culture feels the need for one-sided argument and hyperbolic thinking? Have we lost the ability to see gray?

    — Rusty    Oct 1, 03:00 PM    #

39. WG (#32):

    Of course, if the “community” in question is a state-supported institution, then it is quite illegal to punish “deliberately offensive” speech.

    But, assuming First Amendment considerations are irrelevant because the institution is private, one must still ask whether it is particularly wise to try to maintain a university as a community of the like-minded, booting out those who transgress against its pieties. I think this is a very bad way to run a campus, whether the campus in question is Bob Jones or George Fox.

    Over and above these points, one has to wonder what, if anything, would have happened to students who displayed, say, a poster of John McCain with a faceful of tumors resembling Sarah Palin. Not much, I suspect, even though that would have been equally deliberately offensive.

    Politics has always been a rough and impolite game, and there’s little point in trying to clean up the invective. Life is not a game where some benign authority figure will always be on hand to soothe one’s abraded sensibilities and punish whoever hurt one’s feelings, and a university shouldn’t try to be one either. The values of a kindergarten playground don’t belong there.

    — Fossil    Oct 1, 04:38 PM    #

40. I agree that racism exists. My question is, is this incident about racism or is it more about stupidity and foolish mistakes? I would be cautious in blaming GFU for the behaviors of a few students, no matter how appalling it might be.

    — Scott    Oct 1, 04:39 PM    #

41. At least the 4 students had the decency to “confess”

    — richard    Oct 1, 05:49 PM    #

42. This disgusts me.

    And affirmative action for minorities is not what this country needs to be worrying about. The “affirmative action” given to ridiculously unqualified poeple like Sarah Palin and George W. Bush is what I’m worried about. Somewhere, some eminently more qualified non-whites and women are wondering how the hell Palin got so lucky. What a bogus “meritocracy” we have.

    — J.    Oct 1, 06:33 PM    #

43. They hung an effigy of a black man from a tree. Those questioning the racist intent of these students are, to put it bluntly, just stupid, or to borrow McCain’s favorite word, naive. Protest the scholarship. Make a political statement. Don’t undermine your objective by using imagery than can only be interpreted as racist. Hanging a black man in effigy can only be interpreted as racist, and stupid.

    — BH    Oct 1, 07:22 PM    #

44. Cynthia Marjon-Jones (#25): Who are you people callin’ “you people,” Cindy baby?

    — whitey    Oct 1, 09:43 PM    #

45. To #8
    You wrote:
    ‘Cause if ONE half-black guy made it to the nomination then surely programs like affirmative action are entirely obsolete.

    What is 1/2 a black guy? Does that mean that he can play basketball but cant dance? Or does it mean that he’s articulate but can’t rap? As an African American male that is by your standard 75% African American and 25% Native American, I am trying to understand the implications of your statement.

    — D    Oct 2, 09:53 AM    #

46. To a number of those who have posted, but especially to Fossil and WC, I suggest (as I have previously on similar stories) that we would all do well to keep in mind the admonition from William O. Douglas, who wrote in one Supreme Court decision addressing the issue of free speech that (and I paraphrase here), the best answer to bad speech is good speech. Perhaps if we modeled good speech more consistently, our students would notice and learn from it, benefitting all of society.

    It is appropriate for any community to set a standard of decency and to make that standard known to those who are members or who aspire to be members of that community. And it is appropriate to exclude from that community those persons who fail to meet the standards.

    So, for those who think that presenting images of lynching (or how about just calling it what it is, mob murder) meets the standard of acceptable speech, you must face the fact that others will challenge that belief vigorously. And if you are not comfortable meeting the standard of those who do not believe in promoting images of mob murder, and are asked to leave the community, well that is the price you must pay for exercising your right to engage in behavior that does not meet the standards of the community. For those who wish to challenge such offensive language and behavior, we should be clear in stating what we support and advocate instead – justice, equality, and respect (especially for human life, which is enumerated as the first of our three fundamental rights as Americans.)

    We don’t have to put up with immature, cruel or disrespectul behavior just because the claim of free speech is involved.

    And, yes, I understand that human history is rife with examples of what happens when a society becomes too controlling or sets an inappropriate standard to address offensive behavior. I am equally aware of what can happen when speech of the nature described in this article is left unchallenged (the European Holocaust is probably the clearest example I can think of – what if Nazi hate speech had been more effectively and clearly challenged in the early 1930’s, how might that have slowed down or maybe even prevented the tragedy of the Holocaust?)

    — Rick    Oct 2, 04:08 PM    #

47. Free speech is not unfettered speech. Restrictions on “hate” speech are Constitutional. In this case, had it simply been an effigy of Barack Obama—not hung in a tree—then it would be permissible speech IMO. But hanging it in a tree immediately suggests lynchings. When you add to this context the race based allusions (minority scholarships) on the effigy, then the racially based hate message, with an implied threat to minorities on campus, is pretty clear. That isn’t just speech. You can’t go around threatening people, even groups of people, which is what this demonstration did.

    — Alan Haffa    Oct 6, 03:03 AM    #

48. Conservatives are so full of hate and rage. They are dangerous. I think we need to call on the media to be more responsible and to stop airing hateful views and calling them an opinion. It’s making ordinary people crazy.

    — me 2    Oct 6, 08:41 AM    #

49. What about those at GWU who opposed a conservative conference? Or the students at another university who interrupted a play mid-way and the adminsitrators said it was ok sinc eit was free spech? See exmaples at FIRE.

    — Michael    Oct 6, 03:38 PM    #

50. Hanging someone in effigy is not a new phenomenon on University campuses – 30 years ago, the first year class at my law school hung a paper replica of the Torts professor from the light fixture in the law library. Everyone laughed; the Dean of the Library left it hanging for the day; and we all resumed the semester with a joke behind us. It was in a closed environment – it was taken as a protest by the first year class and no one knew who did it except the ones who were involved.

    However, when on a private university campus and in a public place or common area for all to see, the democratic candidate – who just happens to be classified as a Black American – is hung – this history of this country and the atrocities associated with the legacy of slavery demands an apology and perhaps more than just a reprimand.

    At first I thought, perhaps this represents the general sentiment of this college campus or perhaps the group of students were trying to send a message – in any event, whatever message they were trying to send is overshadowed by the overt racism that will be associated with the act – even if it was done in jest. ‘

    Maybe the students should be required to study the lynchings that took place in America of primarily Black men. Perhaps the students need to understand that African Americans are the only citizens that requires the country to pass constitutional amendments to guarantee that the law will apply equally to them.

    Though we have passed laws, and though we have seen tremendous change – the hearts and minds of many are still promoting second class citizenship for African Americans.

    — Crew    Oct 6, 04:07 PM    #

51. To #‘s 6, 28, and 35: #6 (mis)states GFU’s USNews ranking, and #28 and #36 unquestioningly accept the error. Let me quote from the USNews website re GFU: “George Fox University…Tier 4…National Universities”.
    There are 130 Tier 1 spots – involving about 200 schools (e.g.: four schools are ranked #130);
    Tier 3 and Tier 4 schools are listed alphabetically, with about 50 in each.
    Consequently, GFU is somewhere between 250 and 300 of the 300 schools listed as Universities. Where #6 got 20 I don’t know; and why he thought that all 1400 mentioned in the USNews survey were in one single all encompassing category, I don’t know.

    — richard    Oct 6, 11:15 PM    #

52. Fossil stated, “Over and above these points, one has to wonder what, if anything, would have happened to students who displayed, say, a poster of John McCain with a faceful of tumors resembling Sarah Palin. Not much, I suspect, even though that would have been equally deliberately offensive.” No, I think lynching of black folks has a whole different meaning than what you are suggesting!

    — Kyle David    Oct 7, 05:19 PM    #

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