Florida state Senator Frederica Wilson is introducing legislation that would make it illegal to display a noose in public.  “Some people think of it as a harmless prank,” Wilson told the Miami Herald-Times, “but the noose is a sign of hate and deeply offensive to African-American people. It is wrong. And it needs to be stopped.”

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center (the go-to guy on this kind of issue) told the Herald-Times that after the Jena 6 story received national attention in 2007 nooses started springing up everywhere.  There were five times as many noose-related incidents in 2007 than in the previous year.

But Potok and the SPLC aren’t thrilled by the idea of banning the noose symbol.  While admitting that “The noose has become a real symbol of racial terrorism,” Potok notes out that previous attempts to ban the symbol have been challenged on first amendment grounds.

I’m with the SPLC on this one.  The noose is a symbol of hate, no doubt about it.  But Americans have a constitutionally protected right to be hateful if they so choose.  As the article notes, politicians from Barack Obama, to George Bush to Sarah Palin have been hanged in effigy in recent years.  It ain’t pretty.  In fact it’s downright tragic.  We must find eloquent ways to say no to the noose, but censoring the image isn’t the best way to do it.