Recently Steve Sailer wrote Fake Noose: Hate Hoax Or Hate Hypochondria? about a noose that turned out to be a dog leash.

Displaying a noose is theoretically a threat or intent to intimidate, and that’s why a young white man named Jeremiah Munsen was sent to jail by Federal authorities after driving past some blacks in a truck that displayed some extension cords tied like a noose [ Teen gets prison time for nooses in truck , NOLA.com, August 15, 2008] But a lot of nooses—nooses which get huge amounts of national news coverage—turn out to be hoaxes.

Most of the time, if a noose is actually placed on someone’s office door, for example, it’s a Hate Hoax done by a black person or white Leftist. Jussie Smollett claimed that someone had actually tried to hang him with a noose—that was fake. This is a “Hate Hoax.”

Some of the time, it’s imaginary. Someone sees a piece of rope, string, paracord or twine which is not perfectly straight, and declares it a noose. This is “Hate Hysteria” (or “Hate Hypochondria”).

Hate Hysteria happens partly because no-one knows know what true nooses look like anymore. The knot known in America as a “hangman’s noose” looks like this, from The Ashley Book Of Knots:

When England used to punish murder with judicial hanging, they used a rope with a metal eye spliced into one end of the rope that looks like this (from the memoirs of Albert Pierrepoint, England’s last public hangman):

Here are some examples from our files:

• A CIA Safe House: ”The object was found near a small agency facility located in a building that houses businesses and other organizations. Some people briefed on the incident said it was not entirely clear that the object was even meant to be a noose, or if whoever placed it there knew that the C.I.A. secretly operated in the building.” And there’s no photograph, because hey, CIA.
  CIA Convulsed By Possibly Fake Noose,
• NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace: The headline says it, but it was a national story, because the guy who cried ”noose!” was slightly black and NASCAR is implicitly white.
  ”Noose” Threatening Half-Black NASCAR Driver Investigated by 15 (!) FBI Agents Turns Out To Be Garage Door Pull Rope With Loop]
• Oakland Park, Part I: In Oakland, CA, unhinged Mayor Libby  Schaaf claimed that five ”nooses” had been discovered wrapped around tree limbs in a city park. A ”Hate Crimes” investigation was immediately launched. It didn’t matter that a black Oakland resident, Victor Sengbe, immediately came forward to explain that the ropes were part of a larger swing system not to kill black people, but to promote exercise.
  Michelle Malkin: Hoaxed by #FakeNoose AGAIN
• Oakland Park, Part II: ”But the intentions of whoever put those nooses in the trees—whether for exercise or for hatred—doesn’t matter when it comes to the message that Schaaf said she was hoping to send in directing staff to remove the ropes immediately.”
  More Fake Noose: Piece Of Rope Investigated As Hate Crime In Oakland [emphasis added]

• Michigan State University: A ”noose” made of out of toilet paper was found on a black student’s door. The people who t.p.ed the door denied in set terms that they were doing more than a Halloween prank. Crazy Michigan State U President Samuel Stanley Tells ”Spartans” That CBP Presence On Campus Is A Bias Incident—Like A Toilet Paper Noose
• The US Naval Academy found a rope twisted into a loop in a construction area. This caused a panic, of course, and someone had to explain to the frightened young gentlemen at the Naval Academy that ropes tied in slip knots are used in lifting things.
  [Knot Racism Or Fake Noose?]
• Oakland Park, AGAIN (near the batting cage): A rope was found tied to a batting cage in a park. It did not look like a noose. A Little League coach explained it was used by children to climb the batting cage. Despite that, an Oakland park official said

Even the image of a possible noose is something that brings up all kinds of very hard emotions for a lot of people because it is such a symbol of the ugly history of the United States.

And the FBI was brought in to investigate.
[Public Nooseance]

• Northwestern University: The investigation of a ”rope that had been fashioned into a noose” at Northwestern produced this result: ”A student later reported to school leaders that she had been using the rope for a class project and accidentally left it behind, according to a university statement Friday.”

In spite of this, the Chicago Tribune headline read: Northwestern University condemns ’attempts at racial intimidation,’ including noose found on campus, Dawn Rhodes, April 19, 2019
[Hate Stalks Northwestern U. (In The Form Of An Imaginary Noose And An ”OK To Be White” Sticker)]

• Three State Universities: Michelle Malkin’s article below includes some Hate Hoaxes, but also shows that university students don’t know what a noose looks like: 1) University Of Delaware police discovered some ”nooses” which had caused outrage were metal ”remnants of paper lanterns”, 2) Kansas State University: A panic-causing ”noose” turned out to be made of cut pieces of nylon parachute cord, which police believed had been discarded by someone who ”may have simply been practicing tying different kinds of knot” 3) Michigan State University: ”A noose is a symbol of intimidation and threat that has a horrendous history in America,” then-university president Lou Anna K. Simon said. But it turned out the ”noose” was a ”packaged leather shoelace” that someone had dropped accidentally.

This is what a packaged leather shoelace looks like

[Michelle Malkin’s Handy History Of Fake Noose]

• The Tie Trauma. This is not a big panic, it’s just someone commenting on the internet, but I noticed it at the time. A company called Cyberoptix sells printed ties, and they have a ”Neck Noose” tie, below, sales copy:

Tired of being a corporate slave? At the end of your rope with boring office attire? Show your true feelings! Don’t be A Frayed Knot too.

The first commenter on the Ogizmo post said:

Nooses should not be joked about at all, at least in the U.S. where we have a grave history of lynching that still effects [sic] us today. [Neck Noose Sums Up How A Lot Of People Feel About Neck Ties, Ohgizmo.com, July 7, 2008]

What is affecting us seems to be hysteria. The last actual lynching in the United States took place in the 1960s. Being lynched is more unlikely than being killed in a duel. People need to get a grip on themselves, and maybe get some ”Insensitivity Training.”  

[Noose Nonsense]

• The city of Germantown, TN fired three public theater employees after a coworker complained that some stage-rope knots resembled nooses. [Media Manufactured Noose Mania]

Let’s look closer at this one, with emphasis added.

A hangman’s knot is one way to tie a rope. But it’s also a sensitive subject in the South.

”It reminds me of the days when African-Americans were routinely hung from a tree,” says Memphis NAACP Executive Director Johnnie Turner.

She agrees with a decision to fire three employees who tied noose-like knots above the Germantown Performing Arts Center stage.

”One thing this city doesn’t need is another incident where hatred is being portrayed,” says Turner.

We’re told the noose-like knots were used to cinch up excess rope. A minority employee became offended, the city administrator was consulted, and a spokesperson confirms that Technical Director Matthew Strampe and two part-time workers were let go.

An executive at GPAC tells Action News 5 those involved probably meant no harm, but their firing was a way to set the tone for other employees.

”I don’t think they meant anything by it,” says Germantown resident Paige Wright.

Not everyone agrees with her.

”If they genuinely didn’t mean any mal-intent, it may have been harsh, but who’s to say they really intended to or not?” questions Jason Bell.

”You know, everybody reacts and over-reacts to everything, especially in Memphis,” says Wright. ”It always tends to be racist,” she adds.

”Even if they inadvertently did it, didn’t think about it, I’ll bet you they’ll think about it from now on,” says Johnnie Turner.

She says examples must sometimes be set. [More]

[Noose-like knots lead to 3 firings at GPAC, ActionNews5, September 4, 2007]

The first thing you need to know about “backstage ropes” in traditional stage is that they’re a matter of life and death—they’re counterweighted with sandbags, and if you get stuck in them, you can be hoisted into the air or accidentally hanged in real life [Fair accident puts spotlight on rigging, Evansville Courier & Press, November 6, 2011].

The second thing is that obviously, coiling ropes out of the way doesn’t necessarily make them look like hangman’s nooses except to racial paranoids.

The third thing is that the truth actually doesn’t matter to racial paranoids like Libby Schaaf, above, or the NAACP’s Johnnie Turner.

That’s not only because they think this is a sacred symbol of black suffering—but because it’s an exercise of their power over whites.

James Fulford [Email him] is writer and editor for VDARE.com.