What do your colleagues have adorning their desks? Some fluffy toys, a picture of their partner, a stress ball, a "motivational" poster?
All of them objectionable, but nothing compared to a hangman's noose.
There's a bit of a brouhaha going on over in the US at the moment regarding a CPS Energy supervisor whose cubicle was adorned with a noose. A co-worker took a photo of it and all hell has broken loose.
Investigators at CPS Energy told me the manager believed the noose was a necktie.During a protest Monday morning, activists chanted "CPS! Down with the noose!"
Dr. Howard Anderson of the NAACP said, "One would have to have been born early this morning to not recognize that a hangman's noose is racially offensive in America."
To many, a noose is a haunting historic symbol.
"The hangman's noose has got 12 knots on it," said union representative Ralph Merriweather. "12 knots by the Ku Klux Klan indicated it took 12 knots to hang a black man, to break his neck to kill him."
That's why these protesters say the noose had no business on the desk of CPS Energy Manager of Application and Maintenance.
Indeed. But wouldn't you be uncomfortable sitting in the next cubicle to this guy?