Noose found in UMHS OR stock area.
Apparently it happened last night sometime.
We had a meeting at work about it. Also this email:
Colleagues,
Yesterday, in one of our hospitals, a noose — a symbol of hate and discrimination — was found at the work station of two of our employees.
We have taken immediate action to have this investigated as both an act of discrimination and a criminal act of ethnic intimidation.
This act of hate violates all of the values that we hold dear and will not be tolerated.
Hospital leadership are working with Security and the local Police Department on the investigation. If anyone has any information, we are asking that they contact either Security (734-936-7890, [email protected]) or Compliance (866-990-0111, [email protected]).
Human Resources, the Office of Counseling and Workplace Resilience, and the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion are all working with leadership to provide support to the employees involved and to anyone needing assistance. Any staff member may also contact Counseling and Workplace Resilience at 734–763-5409.
This incident impacts our entire community, and we stand strong as we make it clear to all that this organization — its leaders, faculty, staff and learners — fiercely value and defend equality, inclusiveness, respect and dignity for all, and the elimination of discrimination.
Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, University of Michigan Medical School
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs
CEO, Michigan Medicine
Sad, very sad! This indeed is NOT The Michigan Difference.
Not a reflection on the University. Everyone has wierdos
I agree with this. Our response to the idiotic act is what defines the university, not the isolated incidents (as long as they stay isolated).
Not to get on my soap box here, but I'm assuming this was an employee of the university seeing as it would be difficult for a non employee to get into the OR stock area during night shift. If this happened anywhere else we would almost certainly act like it is a reflection of their university. The difference is Michigan usually handles these situations quickly, and appropriately where other universities would sweep it under the rug.
Sweeping it under the rug would be much better. Uofm needs to stop publicizing this trash. It’s giving bad people a platform, and allows other bad people to know they are not alone.
This was an email sent to employees...not UM publicizing it. I would rather work for an employer who is up front and dilligent rather than one that sweeps stuff like this under the rug and acts like it never happend
Honestly I’m not sure how to handle vague threats. Last semester people threatened Jews multiple times with graffiti. It was emailed to everyone. Maybe the awareness is good, maybe it spreads negative ideas.
Either way it’s outrageous to worry about graffiti, and allow anti-Jewish people to demonstrate in the Diag. Absolutely disgusting of the university to allow.
Yeah I think the UM is walking a fine line. I know allowing free speech (diag example above) but people just want to break boundaries and there are crazies that want to one up each other. Suddenly we have this.
I mean I've heard stories about late night OR and my first thought was "are you sure it wasn't a pair of fuzzy cuffs?". A noose is pretty obvious though and I have a mostly hard time believing it came in on a patient.
If this were state you wouldn't even have heard about it, though. If the doctor tried to file a complaint they would be warned quickly on how difficult it would be to find the culprit and secondly how they were probably imagining it and it would make mountains out of molehills and would reflect poorly on state. Then if they persisted they would start to get negative reviews and the worst cases.
Why is it when something happens at another school it is because they are bad as a whole or the "worst fanbase ever" but when it happens at Michigan, its "not a reflection on the University"? Michigan fans are very kind to ourselves, aren't we?
Racist people suck.
People suck.
Especially racist polititions.
could the noose be there for maybe another reason? Like using it to pull some huge heavy object from a tight or caught state?
I don't know - jumping to conclusions always irritates me. Maybe im in the minority, but just because a person has a confederate flag does not mean he/she is friggin racist.
Watch out calling yourself the minority while also defending the Confederate flag. You're gonna make some people really confused on whether or not they like you.
Dude, what do you think the Confederacy was about?
STATE'S RIGHTS!!!!
...to own other human beings.
PAY NOT ATTENTION TO ANYTHING AFTER THE EXCLAMATION MARKS!
Actually, I am pretty sure that a noose found at a workstation in a hospital was not being used to pull, oh, a car out of a river or something like that. It seems clear that this was done to send a very unfortunate message and whoever sent it should be dismissed and prosecuted.
Are you listening to yourself? I know you are virtue signaling and all and congrats. You are the most non- racist on the board. But prosecuted? Have you lost your mind? What crime occurred by placing a noose somewhere. I agree it was bad, ignore the, etc. but it is not criminal. Resulting in termination? Sure. The cure for bad speech is more speech.
There are a litany of criminal charges that could potentially result, including all the way up to "terroristic threats" (though usually it has to be more specific than a symbolic threat of violence, e.g. a bomb threat call).
Then I fear for our liberty. Freedom to the nose of another citizen.
It seems like a very specific threat to an individual, and a hate crime against a minority. There are laws against such things... If the noose were found in some random tree, I would agree with you. But it was found on the workstation of specific employees.
Did you not read the op that specifically cited criminal ethnic intimidation?
Como está Bolivia?
So someone tied up two pieces of rope shaped suspiciously like nooses, used them to pull two huge heavy objects from a tight or caught state (in the hospital, mind you), then forgot them on two separate desks of employees who happen to be black?
I just learned a little more about you...
So a bunch of guys got tangled up in bedsheets, accidentally tied two pieces of wood together and lit them on fire on a black family's yard and you're gonna jump to conclusions and call them klansmen??!?! Its unbelievable that people are pointing out that racism exists and are making ME uncomfortable!!!!
/s if you really needed it
Champeen: my reasoned reply to your post is, Fuck you, you racist, redneck, cocksucking, motherfucker. (With no disparagement of gays intended. But I do know several homosexuals who would delight in shoving that Confederate flag up your ass until it comes out your eye socket.))
Um, I think you meant no dissing of bisexuals, not gays, you know, with the motherfucking in conjunction with the cocksucker and all....
I guess technically you are correct, having a Confederate flag does not mean a person is racist. It does mean they're okay with people assuming they are racist though which is pretty probative in my opinion.
Supporting the Confederacy is treason.
Eh, just throw the thing away and everyone continue on with your day. By broadcasting this out to the entire health system, it gives the person exactly what they were looking for.
I can't disagree more. Acting quickly and sternly is much better than shrugging at a workplace hate crime / death threat. Your attitude is actually kind of disgusting the more I think about it. Death threats aren't a joke. Those employees probably aren't "just moving on." Firing and arresting the perpetrators is probably not "exactly what they were looking for." You can't just shrug this off. If for no reason other than PR, imagine how you woudl react if you found out MSU or OSU had shrugged off multiple racially inspired death threats? You (at least most of the mgoblog world) would be calling to burn it down. Now, it's "meh, let's move on?" No.
Something that "may resemble a noose" does not qualify as a serious death threat in Ann Arbor Michigan in the year 2019.
Unless you are aware of a series of lynchings that have been secretly taking place at the UofM hospital that I'm not aware of and are now being used as intimidation?
So there has to be a direct threat on someone's life before a situation should be taken serious? You sir.. I hope manage no employees or raise any children.
The world is full of threats.
Why is "may resemble a noose" in quotes? The notice in the OP clearly calls it a noose. The poster you responded to never used that phrase. Nowhere is it claimed that this is under contention or a gray subject.
Saying it may resemble a noose, and then putting it in quotes to act like that's some sort of official nomenclature when it clearly isn't, downplays what's going on. This is an offensive act and a serious matter and you're trying to diminish it as a run of the mill event or an overreaction. Your biases are showing.
There doesn't have to be a series of actions supporting a threat for something to be a threat. As a piece of personal and professional advice, never try to defend blatant harassment.
Do you slap coworkers on the ass and defend it because you haven't raped any women in the office yet?
If you were a manager working for me and you took this attitude with staff I would try to fire you. HR would probably intervene but I would put it on record that you are a liability and I don't want you in my office.
I get what he's saying, although I also disagree. The perpetrators are looking for the publicity over this act, to spread fear and anxiety. It would be nice for an individual to shrug it off as a stupid idiot doing stupid idiotic things and that this would never be heard about again.
Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that. There is the possibility that by ignoring it, the perpetrator(s) escalate. Better to investigate and nip it in the bud.
However, I must say that OP's suggestion and your reaction re: msu/osu is off base. He was suggesting that the individual toss it and move on by not reporting it, not that it be reported and administration doing nothing with it.
"It would be nice for an individual to shrug it off as a stupid idiot doing stupid idiotic things" Why would that be nice? The tone here is that you're upset with the person that had a noose put on their desk. There is no correct defense here. This behavior cannot be tolerated. What if someone sent a note saying they were going to rape your daughter/sister/mother/etc? Do you just shrug and call it idiotic behavior? I don't get that mentality. There is no ambiguity of what a noose means on a black person's desk. It is a clear message to a specific target. The perpetrators need to be found quickly to show to all staff that this behavior is not tolerated and teh workplace is safe and free of harassment. Period.
Perhaps I wasn't clear. It would be nice if we lived in such a world where we could just brush off stuff like this as stupid things stupid people do.
But if you had bothered to read the rest of my comment before firing off a response, you'd know that I wrote that "Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that. There is the possibility that by ignoring it, the perpetrator(s) escalate. Better to investigate and nip it in the bud." \
Glad you're so passionate about the topic, but please don't put words in other people's mouths.
You may be surprised to know that the words I put in your mouth were directly copied and pasted from your comment. i didn't claim you said anything other than what I quoted. I know you're sort of agreeing with the majority of civilized society that rascism is bad but you're also doing an annoying thing where you say you're agreeing and then argue it. I stand by my opinion that it wouldn't be nice if people didn't get upset about overt threats and racism. It would be better if society got upset about this sort of thing and condemned it.
One of the most blatantly ignorant things I have ever read.
Holy shit! That's ridiculous! Pathetic!
In a way it's good to see this stuff coming out. It's always been there, but under the surface. I'd rather know there's a huge problem with racism in the US than be unaware. At least we know how much work there is left to be done. Ever since its become okay with a certain segment of the population to be discriminatory shitheads, I've really become aware of how many discriminatory shitheads there are. I was oblivious a few years ago.
Now we just need to get rid of them...
It will never ever happen. This shit will still happen 100 years from now. As long as there are humans there will be prejudice and willful ignorance.
This is a lazy take. Systemic racism is a historical phenomenon that is only a few hundred years old. It has only been opposed by portions of the American state for about the last 50. Education, social pressure and state interference can absolutely dismantle systemic racism, if we have the collective will.
Are people sometimes suspicious or fearful of those that seem different? They can be, with lack of exposure to other cultures/phenotypes, but that is not at all what systemic racism is.
Sorry this is incorrect. Racism has been around since the very first human arrived, before there was a single organization or government. Every group of humans has assumed they were superior to other groups since time began. Slavery began when humans began, not a few hundred years ago. This take is silly.
This comment is really ignorant of the development of complex human socioeconomic structures.
White supremacist racism is a unique social construct that developed during the early modern period through European colonialism, and developed most thoroughly and applied most widely in the 19th C, the height of European colonialism. This a unique system classifying people by skin color as whole groups, not as ethnic groups. This is a unique phenomenon.
Chattel slavery only existed post-agriculture and post-property. This existed in only a few societies throughout history.
You're trying to universalize recent sociopolitical history, ostensibly to downplay the grotesque nature of modern racism.
Wrong. All slavery was terrible. Chattel was the worst. Ask the defeated of the mongel army how their slavery was. Hitler was a mild character in humanities long destructive line of sociopaths. Over reacting to a rope doesn’t solve the problem of racism. Intelligent speech does. The virtue signaling, even though I tend to agree with the sentiment, hurts our society. If you see someone being racist, talk to them in a nice way and try to nudge them in the lights direction. Saying “ racists” suck begs the question of definition, authority, and logical conclusion. Love defeats hate every time.
Something interesting to think about, there’s also a biological factor too. When the races were separated on different continents and then started integrating such as the Native Americans and Europeans, diseases were spread because of differences in the immune systems. Humans may have developed racist tendencies as a precaution in order to avoid disease. If that’s one of the factors, it will take generations to overcome.