"Pictures have always been the surest way of conveying an idea .... But the idea conveyed is not fully our own until we have identified ourselves with some aspect of the picture."
-Lippman

It is unfortunate that a symbol of a noose was reintroduced into our society (and copy-cat nooses are being sited elsewhere as a result). In the American South, it was, and is, symbol of violence, bigotry, hatred, and days lived in fear. Internationally, it could be considered a symbol of suicide or forced death by way of rope and a hunter's knot. However, in any cultural setting, a picture of a noose evokes images of death.

With recent events supporting the Jena Six, this negative image has garnered even more attention from the media. For those people who did not have a memory to draw from to make an image of a noose "fully their own," they now can turn to any cable news station to see pictures that allow them to identify with the hatred, violence, and bigotry the image represents.

The American youth who grew up in a time where noose no longer dangled from trees and fiery crosses rarely flared, now have a picture to connect to the idea of racism. This week, at the Jena Six rally in Louisiana, the country watched, amazed at the staggering number of people who turned out for the peaceful protest. After hearing about busloads of USC students who also drove down to protest, I remembered Lippman's words. "Pictures have always been the surest way of conveying an idea .... But the idea conveyed is not fully our own until we have identified ourselves with some aspect of the picture." Now that the media has grown significantly since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, pictures have even more potential to effect change by allowing the younger generations to make ideas their own. Maybe the recent media proliferation can effect some change?