Is it just me?

[baldguy]

or is a black man hanging from a tree an inappropriate Halloween decoration?

Coming home from my fathers' house, in a mostly white middle-class suburbia, there it was.

I wonder if they'll get the mini-Auschwitz set up before the 31st.

[smbolisnch]

1. OMG you are joking!

:wow:
Couldn't that be reported as hate speech or something along those lines?

ETA: Was this a witch or mummy or something along those lines? Just crazy...

[baldguy]

9. Nope. It was unmistakable

Black head, black shirt, black pants.

White gloves - like a minstral.

No pointy hat. No cape.

[smbolisnch]

12. I would call and report it.

That is SICK. Why would anyone do such a thing?? :(

[Carni]

20. OK that is pretty deliberate sounding

Good God--but why am I not shocked?

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. What? I would think a hanging body of anykind would be in bad

taste, but certainly a black one.

[TK421]

3. You've got to be fucking kidding me.....

:wow:

[BeHereNow]

4. Where the heck do you live???

Call the ACLU!
Seriously- that is a hate crime.
BHN

[mzteris]

5. r u kidding????????

[xultar]

6. Some one did that in my parents sub division. They fined him

and made him take it down.

[donheld]

7. That is very inappropriate

:banghead:

[BuyingThyme]

8. Get a photo and send it to your favorite blog.

[never_get_over_it]

10. Which RED state do you live in - eom

[seriousstan]

11. Were the owners black?

[cynatnite]

13. Get a photo and send it to the media and blogs...

What state is this, BTW?

[Straight Shooter]

14. "Inappropriate" is using the wrong fork at the dinner table.

What you witnessed is sheer contemptuous hate. Take a photo, and make sure you include the house and its address in the photo. Then do what you have to do to make sure that atrocity comes down.

[Eurobabe]

15. that is seriously phucked up

get pictures and report their racist asses.

[Carni]

16. That's pretty damned inappropriate

Are you sure it was supposed to look like a black man?

Not to forgive this but maybe some idiot just didn't put two and two together when they did their decorations? (let's hope anyway)

[Pepper32]

17. Don't you think you should be reporting this?

Just a thought...

And to answer your question, YES it's very inappropriate and RACIST to have a black man hanging from a tree as Halloween decoration. :grr:

I'm surprised anyone would need to ask a question like this...

[Kablooie]

18. Why not post his address?

I'd be interested to know who he is.

[wanpete]

19. beyond inappropriate...hateful and evil spirited...please do what you

can to bring attention to this so that it can be removed.

[blondeatlast]

21. That's disgusting as hell. Perhaps you should play Billie Holliday's

"strange Fruit" as loud as possible in his direction.

That's horrible.

[never cry wolf]

22. Here's what you shoud do

Take an old white sheet and make a KKK outfit, complete with hood and put a proper costume on the effigy at 2 am. Either that or a mask of bunnypants.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

23. Well, a little perspective

I start with the proposition that a hanging body as a Halloween decoration, while in questionable taste, is not by itself inappropriate. So the question turns on whether or not it was intended to be an African man.

Your later follow ups mention a black shirt and pants, but I think we can agree wardrobe does not equal skin tone. You also mention white gloves and offer your interpretation that it was "like a minstrel," but that is just your interpretation and it is entirely possible that this person had no gloves of another color and didn't want a handless body.

So we come to the head, that you say is also black. Now, we can agree there are different connotations to black, but I recall that the styrofoam heads that wigs are displayed on are either white (I mean actual white, not Caucasion) or black (again, actual black not Negroid) or some other color. Obviously, we have no photo here to go by, but again, this person may have had no other suitable head to use.

It might be more enlightening if you had a photo you could post -- if the head were painted to look like some vaudeville caricature, that would remove all doubt. But otherwise, my guiding principle is never to ascribe to evil what can be explained by stupidity or ignorance.

[Jack_Dawson]

24. What state?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. Deal breaker.

Family or not.

[applegrove]

26. Call the police. That is a hate crime.

[Catherine Vincent]

27. What?!?!

[jayctravis]

28. Devil's Advocate: Perhaps they were meaning to create

your typical hanged man, and the cloth used for the head was black so as to be less distinguishable in the darkness and scary lights. Perhaps it's supposed to represent a shrouded face.

Have not seen it, so cannot judge, but as a halloween decoration, isn't someone hanging from a tree a typical scary scene?

Now, if there are burning crosses around it, yes, that's a problem.

[Catherine Vincent]

29. maybe the original poster stepped out to take a snapshot of the hanging

[SammyWinstonJack]

30. That is not good. How would anyone think that was appropriate

at all, is beyond any comprehension.