MINT WORKER MADE NOOSE FROM COIN BAG ROPE

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V20 2017 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 28, July 9, 2017, Article 20

From the opposite end of the helping mankind spectrum comes this July 5, 2017 New York Times article reporting a recent incident at the Philadelphia Mint. -Editor

It was the beginning of the night shift last Wednesday at the United States Mint in Philadelphia, a secure facility that manufactures money, when a white male coin maker strode across the factory floor to the workstation of an African-American colleague. He was carrying a piece of rope.

The rope had an official purpose: to seal coin bags once they were full. But the worker, who operates the machinery used to make coins, instead looped and twisted it into a hangman’s noose, according to Rhonda Sapp, president of the Mint workers’ union. She was soon deluged with calls and text messages from outraged employees.

The episode, which has not previously been reported, was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Treasury Department with a statement saying that the agency has “absolutely zero tolerance” for such hateful displays and that authorities were investigating.

It is the latest in a series of reports this year involving nooses — especially in the nation’s capital — that point to the return of the hangman’s rope as a potent expression of racial animus.

Nooses, long a powerful symbol of bigotry and hatred directed at African-Americans, have been found hanging from a tree outside the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall; in a gallery at the National Museum of African American History and Culture; outside an elementary school; and on the campus of American University, where bananas with hateful messages were found hanging from nooses on the same day that the first black woman was set to assume the presidency of the university’s Student Government Association.

The noose at the Mint was particularly shocking, Ms. Sapp said, because the Mint is under heavy surveillance given its security concerns; employees know they are being recorded as they work. After a daylong investigation, during which the creator of the noose was kept off the factory floor to protect him from physical retaliation, she said he was placed on administrative leave last Thursday and escorted out of the building.

But Ms. Sapp said that Treasury officials had not done enough to address the roots of persistent racial discord within the factory, adding, “They sweep a lot under the rug.”

The Treasury spokeswoman said only that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had “directed that this matter be handled swiftly and seriously.”

To collectors, the U.S. Mint often seems like a holy place, a palace on a hill surrounded by angels sounding trumpets. In reality, it's just a factory workplace like any other scattered around the country. Its culture and problems reflect the country as a whole, and it's never immune from problems. This was an unfortunate incident, one that hopefully won't be repeated. -Editor