A Noose in a Black Man's Locker

The headline says, Black man suing FDNY for race discrimination finds noose in his locker

An FDNY electrician who filed a race discrimination complaint against the department in December says a noose was left in front of his work locker last week.

Gregory Seabrook, an FDNY communications electrician for nearly 20 years, found the noose Thursday at the FDNY facility at 87 Union St. in Brooklyn, his lawyers said yesterday.

Lovely. Nothing hurts more than this, an assault on a person's heritage, color. In fact, any assault upon our identity hurts. We work hard at being who we are, and take pride in who we are, those of us with self-esteem, and those of us who had an upbringing that emphasized the good in all of us.

This is why, in 1964, the United States passed the Civil Rights Bill, and included in the rights, Title VII, freedom from discrimination in the workplace. Included in the freedoms from discrimination were race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. The Southerners in Congress added sex hoping that Northerners would not vote for a bill that gave women the right to compete in the workforce, but it backfired.

Over the years, amendments were added to free us from discrimination over age and disability.

Forty-seven years, and still people find nooses in their lockers. The noose had a knot, they type used to flog slaves

And they wonder why we keep saying, more education, more education, more education.

Linda Freedman, PhD, LCSW, LMFT