From his NY Daily News column:

As far as I am concerned, the noose incident at Columbia University could easily be something far less than a hate crime, no more than a bad joke or an attempt to manipulate. Just as, 20 years ago next month, the Tawana Brawley hoax embarrassed and disgusted all who were incapable of saying that a rotten fish stinks, far too many might be startled if the identity of the person who hung a noose on a black academic’s door at Columbia is far different from what the piece of rope indicates. Outraged black students are already marching and making demands of the administration that it somehow “put a stop to hate crimes right here at Columbia University,” as one black kid said on the television news.