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Dozens of nooses have shown up on U.S. construction sites. The culprits rarely face consequences.
Business
Dozens of nooses have shown up on U.S. construction sites. The culprits rarely face consequences.
Black workers, who make up only 6 percent of the sector, have found many of the 55 nooses reported at 40 work sites since 2015, a Post analysis has found.
By Taylor Telford
July 22, 2021 at 4:17 p.m. EDT
It happens like this: A noose is left at a construction site or office, somewhere it can easily be found. Usually, by a Black employee. Police are called, complaints filed and vows made to find the culprit.
Then, nothing.
The cycle played out repeatedly this spring at the site of a future Amazon warehouse in Connecticut, where the state’s governor decried the discovery of eight nooses in five weeks as “racist provocation of the worst type.” Yet it’s a form of harassment that occurs with unsettling frequency in the construction industry: More than four dozen nooses have been reported at 40 building sites and offices across the United States and Canada since 2015, a Washington Post analysis of news reports and court documents has found.
The incidents reviewed by The Post involved at least 55 nooses and spanned 17 states, plus the District and Toronto, and several marquee projects: a Merck vaccine facility in North Carolina; campus expansions at Princeton and Johns Hopkins; a luxury shopping center in New Jersey; Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters; and a Facebook data center in Iowa. In some cases, multiple nooses were found at the same site.
{snip}
It’s essential to foster a culture where employees feel secure speaking up, {Darien Grant, vice president and general manager of New York City-based Turner Construction} said. But broader cultural progress requires collaboration, he said, which is why Turner is partnering with other major contractors, such as Mortenson, McCarthy, DPR and Clark Construction to develop better practices for stamping out hate.
“It starts with us,” Grant said. “We have to look in the mirror to make sure we’re holding ourselves accountable.”
Andrew Van Dam and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
By Taylor Telford
Taylor Telford is a reporter covering national and breaking news. Twitter https://twitter.com/taylormtelford
Dozens of nooses have shown up on U.S. construction sites. The culprits rarely face consequences.
Black workers, who make up only 6 percent of the sector, have found many of the 55 nooses reported at 40 work sites since 2015, a Post analysis has found.
By Taylor Telford
July 22, 2021 at 4:17 p.m. EDT
It happens like this: A noose is left at a construction site or office, somewhere it can easily be found. Usually, by a Black employee. Police are called, complaints filed and vows made to find the culprit.
Then, nothing.
The cycle played out repeatedly this spring at the site of a future Amazon warehouse in Connecticut, where the state’s governor decried the discovery of eight nooses in five weeks as “racist provocation of the worst type.” Yet it’s a form of harassment that occurs with unsettling frequency in the construction industry: More than four dozen nooses have been reported at 40 building sites and offices across the United States and Canada since 2015, a Washington Post analysis of news reports and court documents has found.
The incidents reviewed by The Post involved at least 55 nooses and spanned 17 states, plus the District and Toronto, and several marquee projects: a Merck vaccine facility in North Carolina; campus expansions at Princeton and Johns Hopkins; a luxury shopping center in New Jersey; Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters; and a Facebook data center in Iowa. In some cases, multiple nooses were found at the same site.
{snip}
It’s essential to foster a culture where employees feel secure speaking up, {Darien Grant, vice president and general manager of New York City-based Turner Construction} said. But broader cultural progress requires collaboration, he said, which is why Turner is partnering with other major contractors, such as Mortenson, McCarthy, DPR and Clark Construction to develop better practices for stamping out hate.
“It starts with us,” Grant said. “We have to look in the mirror to make sure we’re holding ourselves accountable.”
Andrew Van Dam and Alice Crites contributed to this report.
By Taylor Telford
Taylor Telford is a reporter covering national and breaking news. Twitter https://twitter.com/taylormtelford
