Noose at TC

You might be thinking, does it ever stop at Columbia? First there was the Ahmadinejad controversy, and now there is racism.
Yesterday, October 9, a noose was found hanging from the office door of distinguished African American Psychology professor Madonna Constantine. I couldn't believe that this type of thing was happening here, at Teachers College, a place that prides itself in having diversity and equity in education. At the same time, no place is free of racism as long as it is prevalent in our country. TC is no different. AS diverse as our community is here, it doesn't escape the evils of racism.
Today we had a protest of solidarity where the entire college, students, faculty, and administration, stood outside of TC's main entrance to let people know that this college and university wasn't going to stand for actions as cowardice and awful as this. After Professor Madonna Constantine gave her statement saying that she wasn't going to be silenced from the actions of a coward on Tuesday, we walked around the Teachers College campus and then around Columbia's campus before returning for a town hall meeting.
Personally, I loved it. It was the first real protest that I stood behind and believed in.
Racism is horrendous. In the eyes of God, we are all equal. If I am to live a life representative of Christ and help in ending racism, I must love and be accepting of everyone, no matter where they come from.
The fact that racism still exists tells me that our society still has a long way to go in order to have this hate eradicated. One would've thought that we have progressed as a society from these horrible acts, but just as in Jena, La and now in the nation's best graduate school of education, it is evident that we haven't.
This event did cause a great deal of dialogue which is the first step to improving race relations, especially diversity on campus. In the town hall meeting that we had after the protest this afternoon allowed for everyone to not only voice their concerns, but also to hear suggestions about how to better our school as a safe place where diversity is not only embraced but racism is not tolerated.