Student Editor Fired for Hanging Noose -- Controversy Erupts

By: UWIRE An attempt at motivating writers to hit their deadlines created an uproar at a Minneapolis college.

Gabriel Keith, an assistant editor at the City College Times at Minneapolis Community & Technical College, used a drawstring from a hooded sweatshirt to make a noose, from which he hung a message about making deadlines in late October.

The tactic did not go over well in a newsroom that included several black students. Keith took the noose down five minutes later, but the ensuing hubbub led to his firing from the paper and a dispute between the editor-in-chief and the adviser.

A school investigation concluded that the event was not racially motivated, but on a diverse campus and in a semester that has included several racially-biased noose incidents at other colleges, Keith?s choice of imagery did not deliver the intended message.

UPDATE: The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports today, as follows.
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Gabriel Keith said he had no understanding of the racist implications of a noose when he taped one to the ceiling of the newsroom at the campus newspaper at Minneapolis Community Technical College last month. "I am definitely aware of it now," says Keith, who was fired as the paper's news editor and has become the center of a robust debate over cultural sensitivity at the campus where nearly half the 11,800-student population is minority and 30 percent are black.

Two student groups held a protest rally last week to express outrage over the noose and plan more meetings today. The school administration has organized a meeting with students over the noon hour.

Accusations are flying, both about the incident and the college's response. Some students find it difficult to believe Keith, 26, didn't know what he was doing. They also say the college tried to prevent the campus paper from reporting it.

Administrators deny the accusations.

"We want to educate around cultural understanding," said Laura Fedock, interim associate vice president for academic and student affairs. "We need to teach each other when something is offensive. ... We hope students will come to talk this out."

But Chris Smith, 22, who is black and a member of a student multicultural group, says the school should learn something about transparency. "I'm concerned that it took a whole month to find out about it. Why didn't the school tell us about it?"We are angry," said Lisa Dean, 31, president of Associates of Black Collegians, a student group. "If we do not nip it in the bud, it will spread and a lot of students may not want to attend this college because of racism."

Keith said it wasn't racism, but what he thought was a joke Oct. 10, when he came up with the idea of displaying a noose to encourage student reporters at the City College News to turn in their articles on time.

There were other suggestions, he said, including using a knife, but Keith settled on the noose. He asked a fellow student, also white, to make a noose, which he did, from a drawstring on Keith's sweater.
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