Profiles in courage: young black woman reports "noose" in dorm

Run away, it's a macro-aggression! (And I'm fit to be tied)

Fortunately, she was able to retreat to a safe space and cuddle a puppy until police identified the scary object as a misplaced shoelace.

The president of Michigan State University, Lou Anna Simon, rapidly released a statement denouncing nooses and describing the shoelace hanging on a dorm door in Holden Hall as “a racial incident.”

“A student reported a noose was hung outside of her room,” Simon’s statement said. “I want to recognize the courage it took for the student to report this incident.”

“This type of behavior is not tolerated on our campus,” [Simon] also said. “No Spartan should ever feel targeted based on their race, or other ways in which they identify. A noose is a symbol of intimidation and threat that has a horrendous history in America.”

By Wednesday afternoon, campus police managed to locate a shoelace which matched the “noose.” The police found it outside the dormitory.

The campus cops even managed to track down the student who had lost the shoelaces.

A Michigan State spokesman, Jason Cody, then suggested that the shoelaces were somehow specially packaged to look like “a noose.”

“The matching packaged leather shoelace was found outside of the residence hall,” Cody said in an updated statement. “Officers located and spoke to the student who lost both of the shoelaces, which are packaged in a way that someone could perceive them to look similar to a noose.”

The student who lost the shoelaces lives on the same floor as the student who called in the noose threat.

“Also, the original shoelace found inside the residence hall was not directed at any individual,” Cody said reassuringly. “It originally was seen on hallway floor and later on a stairwell door handle, where officers believe someone put it after picking it up.”