CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – A Tennessee college student is apologizing after she inadvertently offended gay and black students on campus with a rainbow noose art project on Monday.
Officials at Austin Peay State University removed an unidentified student’s art project from campus Monday after complaints that the display was offensive to gay and black students, though the school included an explanation from the student involved, Reuters reports.
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“My intention with my sculpture project was to address the cycle of death and rebirth that is represented by the arrival of spring,” the student said in a university statement.
“I had no social or political statements in mind,” she said. “I did not take into consideration that nooses are a racially charged symbol, for that I am sorry.”
The artwork featured six nooses tied to a tree branch hanging over a sidewalk on campus. The nooses were created out of crocheted yarn in the colors of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple – leading some to believe it was a statement about gays.
“Speculation on social media suggested the display might have been meant to highlight the struggles facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community with suicide, given that the nooses were in the colors of the movement’s rainbow flag,” according to the news service.
The NAACP of APSU fanned the flames with an Instagram post of the artwork with the caption “So this is at #APSU.”
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University president Alisa White said in the statement that the “incident is deeply disturbing and is hurtful to our university community.”
“I am saddened, and I am sorry for the hurt and offense this caused,” she said.
Campus police responded to complaints about the art around 5 p.m. Monday and removed it about 45 minutes later when they couldn’t tell if it was a school-sanctioned art project or a hate crime, Derek van der Merwe, vice president for advancement, communication and strategic initiatives, told The Leaf Chronicle.
“There was no context to give. No explanation. Obviously, that changes when someone clearly communicates what is art,” he said. “I think the police were very clear they didn’t understand if it was art or not. And based upon that, it has to be viewed as a hate symbol and removed.”
Students protested the unintentionally offensive artwork Tuesday, and the FBI was sent in by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville to determine whether there was “hate bias” involved. The FBI did not find any “hate bias” in its investigation, and the school is not punishing the student who created the project.
The artwork was initially approved by a professor in the art department, though the teacher warned the student about how it might be interpreted and had not given final approval to display the art, Reuters reports.
About 20 students and others demanded answers about the schools reaction to the artwork – and questioned the decision not to punish the student – and school officials held a public forum Tuesday.
“I know you want me to act by taking some sort of severe action against the student, and frankly it would make it easier if we did,” White told the forum. “But I don’t think it is the right thing to do, and I have to be responsible for that as well.”
According to The Leaf-Chronicle:
This is not the first time that a noose has been found on APSU’s campus. In 2005 a student was expelled for putting up a noose. The difference between these two cases is the intent of the student, according to White.
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