The Islip chapter of the NAACP is teaming up with Suffolk Community College to discuss race issues amid recent local and national incidents involving nooses.

Roderick Pearson, president of Islip's NAACP chapter, helped organize the forum, which will discuss what he calls the Island's racial divide. The conference is scheduled for 8 a.m. Saturday at Suffolk Community College's Sagtikos Building.

Late last month, a noose was placed inside a basement locker room of the Hempstead Police Department. Last week, someone placed a noose outside a professor's door at Columbia University in upper Manhattan. In the most recent incident, a noose was found outside a post office near ground zero in lower Manhattan Thursday.

Racial tensions peaked in Jena, Louisiana, where white teens placed a noose under a tree at the high school to discourage black students from sitting there. In response, six black students attacked one white student. Five of those teens, dubbed the Jena 6, were initially charged with attempted murder. Meanwhile, the white students weren't prosecuted for their actions, sparking the national outrage and media attention.

"This is an alert and warning to Long Island that the issues still exist here," Pearson said. "The noose to the African American community is what the swastika is to the Jewish community: It is offensive; it is an insult."

Although the NAACP is also developing programs to better deal with hate and bias crimes, the core of Saturday's program has a different focus.

"This is an attempt to bring us back together," Pearson said.

Related Information:Chieforders sensitivity training after noose discoveryNooseat Hempstead P.D. sparks internal probeChief:Noose placed inside Hempstead P.D.