Miami U. police remove display of nooses in tree

By Lisa Cornwell
Associated Press

Student complaints prompted police at Miami University to take down a student art display consisting of seven nooses and a tire swing hung from a tree.
University officials said the artists apparently did not intend to be racist.
Three students said they created the display as a group art project, Jeffrey Herbst, Miami's provost and executive vice president, said Wednesday, a day after the display was dismantled.
"They said it was intended as an art project that juxtaposed childhood and death, with the tire swing symbolizing childhood and nooses representing death," Herbst said. "We believe that. But we also believe - given the symbols used - that it was insensitive to the community."
Herbst said the students have apologized. The university did not release their names.
Miami University President David Hodge has ordered an investigation.
"Regardless of what the intent was, the noose conjures up images from the past that evoke real emotion and that has to be addressed," said Matt Boaz, director of the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity at Miami, which seeks to eliminate harassment and discrimination on campus.
Hodge wrote in an e-mail to students, faculty and staff Tuesday night that he was troubled by the incident and the insensitivity he said it reflected.
Nooses have been used to symbolize the lynchings of blacks.
"Our African-American student population is definitely frustrated by this whole event," said Gerald Yearwood, adviser to the Black Student Action Association at Miami, said. "You would think that people would be more sensitive and have more awareness of the symbolism involved."
The president of the Association of Black Faculty and Staff at Miami approves of the university's preliminary response and is working with the administration to plan campus meetings and other ways of addressing the issue.
"I was very distressed when students who discovered the display called me about it," said association president Jhan Doughty Berry. "They were very saddened by the experience and afraid since they weren't sure what was meant by the display, and we have been talking with them to be sure they are OK."