Republican Lynches Empty Chair in Racist Presidential Effigy in Northwest Austin by: Katherine Haenschen
Update, 10:00 a.m. Thursday: the homeowner has added an American flag to his display. Click here for more.
Today, Burnt Orange Report received the photo [below], taken in front of a home in Northwest Austin. The resident, Anti-Obama Republican, BUD JOHNSON, lynched an empty chair from a tree in his yard, which one can easily interpret to represent a racially motivated act of violence against the President.
Now, one could easily argue "it's just a chair, what's the big deal? That's not racist!"
However, in light of Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican National Convention, in which he had a largely one-sided conversation with an empty chair he pretended was Barack Obama, this imagery is now associated with the President.
The image of the chair is associated with the President. Now, lynch that chair from a tree, and you've got a pretty awful racist sentiment calling for lynching the first African-American President!
Gotta love those Texas Teabaggers...Keepin' it classy.....
We have a long history of hanging effigies of politicians as a form of political protest. Why should this one be exempted from that tradition simply because of the color of his skin? You can make it racially motivated if it makes you feel good and outraged by doing so I suppose, but race isn't by default a part of participating in this time honored form of political dissidence. I'm sure the person responsible will get to have themselves a nice chat with the SS over it, but as long as it is simply an expression of political disaffection, I see nothing wrong with treating this president in the same manner as we've treated the previous 43 of them.
I don't know about you LJ, but I can't recall any rightie here ever saying that something a Republican/conservative did was in poor taste. I'm not talking just about this incident. No matter how badly a conservative behaves do you recall any conservative here responding in any way other than either
1. Get over it it wasn't that bad, or
2. A Democrat/liberal has done worse so it's OK.
archer wrote: I don't know about you LJ, but I can't recall any rightie here ever saying that something a Republican/conservative did was in poor taste. I'm not talking just about this incident. No matter how badly a conservative behaves do you recall any conservative here responding in any way other than either
1. Get over it it wasn't that bad, or
2. A Democrat/liberal has done worse so it's OK.
Nope... Neither of those responses is in the playbook... It's usually an immediate rush to find something that a Democrat has done that they try to pass off as "equivalent." But an expression of "Gee, that was in poor taste" or "inappropriate" is not in their vocabulary...
(Insert standard 'The Liberals never say that about their own people either" here: ____________________________________________)
If SFB had said that the display was in poor taste, I likely would have agreed with her. That isn't what she said, not even close. What she said was that it was racist. The reason that she gives that the hanging this president in effigy is racist, and hanging the other 43 in effigy wasn't, is solely due to the color of this president's skin.
Yeah, I think its in poor taste, just like I thought the hanging in effigy of Palin 4 years ago was in poor taste, just as I thought the hanging in effigy of Bush was in poor taste when he was president of the Union. It was in poor taste when Lincoln was hung in effigy, when Washington, Adams and Jefferson were hung in effigy and when Occupy Wall Street hung a banker in effigy. Taste isn't the topic SFB raised, racism is.
I saw a report on this earlier and the chair had a small American flag attached to it, in case people didn't understand the chair reference. I don't know if this photo was taken before or after that.
Found this funny exchange in the Austin newspaper:
"Mr. Johnson," I said in that friendly way that makes me beloved to all, "I'm Ken Herman with the Austin American-Statesman."
Johnson, who I soon pegged as a shoo-in first-ballot inductee into the Get-Off-My-Lawn Guy Hall of Fame, greeted me with "You're trespassing on my property."
"I apologize," I said. "I was just coming to ring your bell. Ken Herman with the Austin American-Statesman."
"I don't want to talk to you," he said.
I pressed on. "You don't want to talk about the political statement you're making with ... "
Johnson interrupted with, "The political statement is one."
"One what?" I asked.
"It's an empty chair," he said. "That's all it is."
I asked what statement he was trying to make.
"What does the empty chair mean?" he asked. "What does it mean to you?"
I told him it could mean a lot of things and mentioned the Republican National Convention.
"That's exactly what it meant," he said. "That's all you get."
PrintSmith wrote: If SFB had said that the display was in poor taste, I likely would have agreed with her. That isn't what she said, not even close. What she said was that it was racist. The reason that she gives that the hanging this president in effigy is racist, and hanging the other 43 in effigy wasn't, is solely due to the color of this president's skin.
Yeah, I think its in poor taste, just like I thought the hanging in effigy of Palin 4 years ago was in poor taste, just as I thought the hanging in effigy of Bush was in poor taste when he was president of the Union. It was in poor taste when Lincoln was hung in effigy, when Washington, Adams and Jefferson were hung in effigy and when Occupy Wall Street hung a banker in effigy. Taste isn't the topic SFB raised, racism is.
You made my point nicely.....you should have stopped at "Yeah, I think its in poor taste"....but no, you have to make it all about LJ, not about this man's bad behavior, then whine about how it has been done before....."you did it too" are a conservatives favorite 4 words.. Oh....and if the president is white, it's not racist, it's just stupid. But when the president is black, you can bet it is perceived as racist.
PrintSmith wrote: It is only perceived as racists by those who think in terms of race and who benefit by continuing to have others think in terms of race.
Wrong again, professor (I think that fits you rather nicely). You, a white guy, probably has a difficult time understanding how it feels to live in a black skin. I know I do.....even though I have many black friends, I know I cannot see the world through their eyes nor understand what it is like to live black in this country. Just as a man cannot understand what it is like to live as a woman, unless he decides to have a gender change....but even then he has missed the whole growing up as female experience. So you saying what is racist and what is not is a joke.
