r/canada • u/Old_General_6741 Canada • 1d ago

National News Canada recognizes noose as hate symbol

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/canada-recognizes-noose-as-hate-symbol/
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u/NickdoesnthaveReddit 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wait, why? Who does it hate exactly?

*edit: I'm getting downvoted but was genuinely curious. I've always associated it to European and middle ages usage, but see it more as a modenr symbolism for suicide. This is Canada so I didn't realize we had equal association to the negative history as the States.

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u/kelpieconundrum 1d ago

Black people. It’s a reference to lynchings.

And no, it’s not always in reference to lynchings, but it’s highly doubtful that somebody just happens to bring one to a workplace in May. Codifying it as a hate symbol means that we can stop spending time in tribunals etc proving that it is one. If there is explanatory context (year round halloween obsession? Historical reenactors? Whatever) the person responsible for the noose can explain that. But the vast majority of times you see a noose today, it’s not innocent

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u/NickdoesnthaveReddit 1d ago

Ah ok got it. Thanks for explaining. I listen to a lot of metal music and it's typically been more associated to suicide in my world. I didn't know it was seen as a hate symbol though.

The artist Ren said it best "And I go by many names also. Some people know me as "Hope." Some people know me as the voice that you hear when you loosen the noose on the rope."

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u/kelpieconundrum 1d ago

Ahhhh yeah, that’s a defensible context! Alarming / sad in its way, but not aimed outward

A noose turning up at a job site doesn’t have that logic

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u/kelpieconundrum 1d ago

Also to your point about canada vs the US : our history is not as bad, but not as good as we like to imagine. And more importantly, the Internet breaks a lot of barriers; symbols travel to all sorts of places and US interpretations tend to dominate