An outhouse Obama float in Nebraska sparks a furor.
NEBRASKA MIDWESTERNERS proved that July 4th isn’t just about celebrating America’s independence, it is also a time to embrace outright racism in an Independence Day parade that should be about anything but what happened in Norfolk, Nebraska.
From the Huffington Post [via Lincoln Journal Star]:
Rick Konopasek, a member of the Norfolk parade committee, defended the float, comparing it to a political cartoon and noting that multiple parade judges awarded it an “honorable mention.”
“It’s obvious the majority of the community liked it,” he said. “So should we deny the 95 percent of those that liked it their rights, just for the 5 percent of people who are upset?”
This same type of mentality is alive and well and living in other midwestern states, too. Islands of intolerance where right-wing radio is entrenched.
The Associated Press is now reporting that parade organizers are going to meet this week to discuss whether just maybe the parade rules on floats should be overhauled so that outright racist sentiments aren’t allowed.
Claiming that the float was “satire” didn’t pass muster with Democrats in Nebraska, nor mothers trying to explain to their children the message behind the racism.
Norfolk City Councilman Dick Pfeil told the Omaha World-Herald that he was unhappy with the float, and he wanted to make clear the city had not approved it.
“The city of Norfolk doesn’t condone that,” Pfeil said.
Kathurima said she is having a hard time explaining the float to her daughter.
“My daughter keeps asking me, ‘Why?’ and I don’t have an answer for her,” she said. “We made this place our home, but right now it doesn’t feel like it. It’s shameful.”
It looks like a local newspaper in somewhere did something much more inflammatory.
http://nypost.com/2014/07/06/obama-called-the-n-word-in-west-village-newspapers-headline/
There was also a story about a lady running for Congress that had an image of her face changed on a campaign sign.
“It looks like a local newspaper in somewhere did something much more inflammatory.
http://nypost.com/2014/07/06/obama-called-the-n-word-in-west-village-newspapers-headline/”
There was also a story about a lady running for Congress that had an image of her face changed on a campaign sign.”
Well as to be expected you do your usual disingenuous and oh so predictable and tiresome attempt at utterly false equivalency.
sec – I am relating to the topic. What the hell are you even talking about?
mjs – you know how when you are to talking to a Democrat and you say something critical of Obama, they immediately respond by bringing up George Bush even though it doesn’t directly relate to what you are talking about? That is essentially what you are doing.
Why bother trying to make sense out of this person. There is so much racist comments and repeated hated speech in his broken English attacks.
For any folks with at least 2 functioning brain cells anyway I suppose explaining mjs’s disingenuousness and bogus false equivalency….the opinion post was someone making the point that the wingnutesphere and repugnantklan,teabagging,UBERChristian base think of President Obama as the N in the Whitehouse. So…to mjs someone making an overtly racost statement aka the float and someone pointing out the racism of the right are equal. By the same token in a REPUBLICAN primary someone spray paints a Black REPUBLICAN woman candidate’s lawn sign with a white face and by extrapolation mjs tries to imply somehow Dems are responsible. THEN to… Read more »
sec is kind enough to show off his hate speech, racism, and broken English. It is not really necessary because we are already too familiar with your garbage secular.
I am always happy to show the repugnantklan,teabagging,UBEWRChristians why they got their racist butts paddled in two Presidential elections by the Black guy and why they are going to get their war on women’s rights, misogynistic butts paddled in two by the woman. And please….keep up the moronic attempt to portray someone pointing out the nature of your political parties base as hate speech. You in your limited capacity think it is clever…to those with more then two functioning brains cells in the same area code it simply reinforces why they get queasy whenever they see or think of some… Read more »
And what has this to do with the subject at hand? Jesus Christ, you are so predictable. And so lame.
“Rick Konopasek, a member of the Norfolk parade committee, defended the float, comparing it to a political cartoon and noting that multiple parade judges awarded it an “honorable mention.”
Gee….wadda surprise….a RED state, RED community loves a blatantly racist gesture…what a complete surprise.
This is routine Obama hatred! Nothing to see here moving along!
I’ll be in the minority here. There is nothing racist about an outhouse, even one with bullet holes in it. Any guesses about the motivation of the guy who constructed the float are just guesses. It’s just an outhouse. I also think the question “So should we deny the 95 percent of those that liked it their rights, just for the 5 percent of people who are upset?” is a good one. There are people that will claim every criticism of Obama is racially motivated, and if I remember correctly that mindset was even used against Hillary Clinton in 2008.
So nothing is racist unless the n-word is actually used? “There are people that will claim every criticism of Obama is racially motivated”! Can you specifically tell me what exactly is the criticism regarding the President that is being communicated by that outhouse? Which Obama policy is being criticized?
And I have been in “the minority” for so long here that I don’t even need to preface my responses with qualifiers. Yes, note that the woman quoted in the newspaper did not identify the “racism” in the parade “float”, the author of the blog did not identify the racism…and when you get to the comments, the implied question is contortedly deflected to another question not even under scrutiny. The least intellectually unsatisfying guess was that the mannekin attached to the outhouse appeared to have a darker face color….but then again, old weathered wood is not usually expected to be… Read more »
Denialism is used by individuals desperate to avoid dealing with an uncomfortable truth. Much of the opposition this president has faced is due to simple old fashioned racial animus. This outhouse display is just the latest example. There has been incidents of likenesses of President Obama being hung in effigy, pictures of him have been circulated online of made up to look like an ape, a African witch doctor with a bone through his nose! Pictures of him dressed like a pimp and the first lady dressed up to look like a hooker but I guess you think all the… Read more »
“. pictures of him have been circulated online of made up to look like an ape, a African witch doctor with a bone through his nose!”
I think those things are racist but I don’t think an outhouse is racist. Please explain what is racist about an outhouse.
PaperbackRuyter: Unfortunately some people are just not persuadable! If you can’t see the obvious hatred and disrespect in that display there is just no more to be said on the matter. There comes a point where you just have to give up.
I definitely see disrespect, but i think the days of presidents demanding respect went out a long time ago.
i would like to know why you feel outhouses are racist though.
Are you serious PBR?? If you are you may be the densest substance substance known to man. Really you can not see the inherent disrespect in labeling an outhouse the Obama Presidential Library or the caricature of the president presented in the float? You see no linkage to previous imagery of watermelons, witchdoctors etc. all which harken back to the imagery of the Minstrel Show? No dice? I’ll take excessive White Privilege for $1000 Alex.
Go blow bubbles in the bathtub troll. CO your entire post is a waste of words and not a bit clever. I find this need of conservatives and libertarians to defend in indefensible just to get under Liberal’s skin a annoyance. It just proves the point that tribal loyalties trumps facts and realities on the right. Willful blindness to the racial animus displayed in the float does not make you cleaver, or skeptical, or wise, or much of anything other than an asshat. If you can’t see what is right in front of your face, then you have no heart… Read more »
I’ll answer your 4:31 question here. I do see the inherent disrespect in the float, which I’ve already said. I do not see the linkage to obviously racist imagery like watermelons and witch doctors.
So far no one has been able to say why the float is racist and the only responses to the question are just insults and name-calling.
It basically says that all black people deserve to be living in shacks with outhouses like they did during the days of Jim Crow. And since Obama is black he’s not worthy to be in the White House and since he’s black he probably used a bathroom with running water for the first time when he got into the White House.
That’s possible I guess. How do you know the maker of the float doesn’t just feel that Obama’s a bad president that doesn’t deserve more than an outhouse for his presidential library? That is disrespectful but not racist.
Your “explanation” as well as either clueless denial or like mjs outright disingenuous blathering says everything anyone other then a good ol boy republican base member needs to know regarding this float and the intent of the fine folks who perpetrated it as well as those other upstanding citizens who think it’s funny.
Congratulations sec! All your idiocy condensed into one sentence. I am sure you do not see the humor in your insulting hate filled gibberish attacking another group for being insulting and disrespectful. If you say the float is racist, I’ll take your word because you are so racist and hate filled that you qualify as an expert on this subject.
It is heartening to know my posts get under the skin of the resident conSERvatives and fantasy island dwellers.
He’s the president of the freakin’ United States . He deserves respect no matter what you think of him . I don’t give a damn about the 95% who liked it , they’re just a bunch of scum . This is the issue , this idea that you can treat him like any other person .
Just another example of why most people in the country have a dislike of the GOP.
Yes! This is self-inflicted, too.
Honorable mention? Oh please!
The float creators clearly do not like Obama. That is their right. It’s their right to express this, just as it was the right of those carrying the Bush as Hitler pictures.
I am not seeing an outhouse as racist. however. An outhouse has nothing to do with skin color. Nothing.
Ah Beth, so happy to see you checking in again, and missing the point as usual.
Please see my response to casual.
Well, Paperback Ruyter, either he’s a racist or he’s completely ignorant of what has gone on in this country. So take your pick.
Well I guess we agree this isn’t necessarily racist. That’s a start.
All I can tell you is from my perspective of living in the south it is extremely racist. It’s no different than all the other stuff like eating watermelon, etc. This is just using another negative stereotype of Blacks and for all we know this person who did this might have grown up in the south.
What do all you commenters who are using literalism as a form of denial think that the little black girl in the photo thinks? It is her independance day too. She has a president and first family that looks like her and her town thinks all he deserves is an outhouse for his presidential library. What message does that send to her? On a day when she should go home proud to be an american and inspired by a president that has exemplified living the american dream. When she should be telling herself that if she works hard in school… Read more »
Now, now…you are expecting an awful lot from the conservative set.
I don’t think it was wise to have floats that make political statements in a Fourth of July parade at all. Apparently the parade committee thought it was OK to have such floats though, and if you will allow political commentary in a parade you can’t reasonably exempt statements about the most powerful man and highest-profile politician in the world.
Quite a stretch there Paperback, to still try an sound reasonable. I am unaware of any other floats in the town’s parade that had other political commentary. And you know in their effort to always try to make the ugliness between left and right equatible the press would have highlighted such a thing.
You never responded to my question. What do you think the little black girl was thinking? That photo breaks my heart, does it have any impact on yours at all?
LL, the picture does not break my heart, because it has a much different meaning for me than it does for you. To me outhouses are silly more than anything else. I used them when I was a kid and in my life they were associated much more with white hillbillies than any sort of association with African-Americans. I gather from other posts outhouses have a huge racist connotation that I was unaware of, and frankly am skeptical of. I’m not sure what the little girl was thinking. The only quote I’ve seen from her was “Mommy, what does that… Read more »