Nooses at Columbia

When I heard that someone hung a noose from the office doorknob of Columbia University professor Madonna G. Constantine, it occured to me that she might very well be a professional victim trying capitalize on all the publicity about the nooses in a tree in a school yard in Jena. Then I read some quotes and she sounded pretty professional. That is, she did until I read what she told the New York Times about her having published 30 articles before she applied for tenure. "Most people only go up with 15 or 20," she said. “I figured as a black woman, I needed to at least double that.”

Right-t-t-t. It's so much harder for black women to get tenure than white women. What planet is she living on? The competition for black faculty is so intense that most black candidates get 50 bonus points just for successfully exhaling CO2. I hereby withdraw whatever respect I might have earlier had for her. I was right the first time. She could very well be the kind of pathological publicity seeker who would fake a noose threat on herself.