Enough hoaxes already!

So the latest noose incident is yet another hoax. I am so tired of these. Every time something potentially race-related is found, here's all this hullabaloo for days about how racism is still this huge problem in the country, and while it is in some parts of the country, there have been very few actual incidents. The few real stories lose credibility when they're mixed in with a cacophony of hoaxes.

Of course racism (actually "ethn-ism" or "hue-ism" or something - we're all members of the human race, right?) is still a problem in some areas of the country. But automatically assuming the "usual suspects" are guilty of mysterious incidents - without any substance to back up that assumption - doesn't help. In addition, by not charging someone who deliberately creates and reports a hoax - one leading to denunciations of those the hoaxer hoped to smear - we send the message that we don't really care about the facts of the situation; we'll believe the assumed (but false) principle was true, anyway. It's ridiculous, and it's part of what's tearing the country apart.