Controversy over Halloween display. Is it racist or in good fun?

[apples and oranges]

POPKA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A Halloween decoration at popular fruit stand on U.S. Hwy 441 in Apopka is causing some controversy. That decoration is a mannequin hanging from a noose on a post.

"I find that to be very upsetting. And, we're in what 2010 and people still doing a race issue. That's uncalled for. It's shocking hanging a black person," said a man who pulled over to get a closer look.

Other customers didn't seem to have any issue with the display. "Because it's Halloween. It's supposed to be a fun time," said one of the fruit stand's regular customers.

"Do you think it looks like and African American person?" asked FOX 35. "Absolutely not. Its a dummy," said the customer.

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/orange_news/093010halloween-display-disturbs-some

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Particularly given the history of the South,

I think it's in execrable taste. Personally, I would object to it wherever it is, north or south.

[S Calawag]

7. I've thought the same thing about the crosses people wear

I mean, if Jesus had been executed in the early 20th century would people be wearing little electric chairs around their necks and sticking full sized ones up on top of their churches?

[defendandprotect]

57. Interesting observation ....

No one is even sure if there was a Jesus let alone anyone put on a cross who went

Bibical -- the nearest they have to it was possibly nailed to a tree?

[stray cat]

2. What if it was a white dummy?

Should it be illegal regardless of color? I find glorifying murder offensive but I guess it could be a display of suicide.. What if a black family put up a white dummy, a black dummy?

[MrScorpio]

3. It looks like a blonde zombie to me

I think that the hanging aspect is much more problematic than the ambiguous racial features of the thing.

[timtom]

4. Frankly, I find Hallowe'en to be in bad taste.

It's just that I've never really enjoyed.

But I do like scary movies.

[WeekendWarrior]

13. I've always loved Halloween

I find Christmas to be in bad taste for a couple of reasons: 1) If it's meant to be a holiday celebrating the birth of Christ then it's pretty fucking crass and commercial; and 2) Why are we celebrating the birth of somebody who never existed. And I don't mean Santa Claus.

[Edweird]

22. Me too. I got married on Halloween, in New Orleans.

I always explain to the 'norms' that it was because we met on Halloween - which is the truth - but the fact of the matter is that we were (are) freaks and it was super cool.

[Dappleganger]

46. Oh, wow...

that wounds like the ideal wedding! One of my favorite trips to NO was visiting the cemetaries and enjoying the haunted stories.

[orleans]

56. here's a place you can renew your wedding vows the

next time you're in vegas:
http://www.gothicweddings.com/

it must be a fun place to work!

[Edweird]

58. Comically we renewed our vows 2 weeks after we got married.

Her parents insisted on a ceremony - we had sort of 'eloped'. The second ceremony was more 'goth' than the first (we aren't 'goths', we are freaks. I do love goth girls and the goth aesthetic, though).
We held it a nightclub I was managing at the time that was a fetish/goth/industrial underground club. Good times.

That chapter of my life is closed. Our divorce was finalized less than a month ago. Such is life. There's no telling who my next ex-wife will be, but odds are she won't be goth. I'm too 'norm' now.

[orleans]

64. ah, well, such is life. congratulations on starting a new chapter. n/t

[timtom]

53. I totally agree with you on Christmas.

And for the same reasons.

But, I like Christmas for the music and for the food.

[NotThisTime]

5. It's disgusting

[S Calawag]

6. Looks like something from the Salem witch trials

Now they're holding them in Florida? Yikes

[pinboy3niner]

8. Strange Fruit

The photograph that was cited by the songwriter as the inspiration for the song: Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Fruit


Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs


Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

[Duchess]

9. C'mon

As long as it isn't a real human then does it really matter? Halloween...bad taste is a part of the Holiday. Some people may not like it. That is their right but c'mon.

[Xipe Totec]

20. "Titus" - Aaron the moor's confession

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE41Kd1hrf8

[Duchess]

26. Exactly my point

People have enjoyed slasher films (or plays in this case) since Shakespeare. Titus is pretty gruesome. Pretend violence is not actual violence. There is a difference. So, unless that is a real person - I don't care.

[Xipe Totec]

28. To me, Aaron was blood curdling

And I have no doubt that the violence described by Shakespeare in this soliloquy was not far from the actual truth of that period.

[Duchess]

36. Agreed...

and I'm sure some pretty sick, crazy, shit still happens today. Mocking death is the way some people deal with mortality. It doesn't hurt me (or anyone else) and I don't care if they want to hang a piece of plastic in a tree. It's no different than putting a plastic ornament on a Christmas tree IMO.

[awoke_in_2003]

30. you do realize...

that not very long ago they lynched people for real down there?

[pipi_k]

32. Just wondering why anyone would assume it's a lynching of a black person?

One could just as easily think it's an effigy of Mary Surratt, executed on the gallows.

And her co-conspirators...all white.

Leave them up long enough and they do tend to turn a little....dark.

[Duchess]

37. But this isn't real.

Lynching happened and that was real and horrible beyond words. This is a plastic mold and it isn't real.

They aren't advocating lyching...they are mocking death. It's morbid but it's how some people deal with mortality. People do shit like that all of the time without actually hurting anyone.

[Brickbat]

10. I dislike "murder" displays no matter who it is. Although I have to admit that the fact that it's a

woman makes me shudder a bit more than usual.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ZombieHorde]

12. "Is it racist or in good fun?"

I guess the question is a matter of intent. Are the people who put this decoration trying to intimidate people, or are they just celebrating Halloween? Without knowing them, the question is hard to answer.

[WeekendWarrior]

34. Of course there's the other question:

Are they just fucking stupid or did they know this might upset some people?

[mitchum]

14. Strange Fruit Stand

[spanone]

15. rod stewart?

[alphafemale]

19. you beat me by about 6 minutes! nt

[pipi_k]

35. Ridiculous!!!!!!!

Rod Stewart wouldn't be caught dead wearing a dress like that!!






:+

[alphafemale]

16. looks like they're hanging an ugly skinny blonde guy with a bad shag haircut. Rod Stewart?

Maybe they didn't think he was sexy?

Dead faces turn that gray-purple color when not prettied up with make-up at the funeral home. I don't see a racist intent.

Bad taste, but it is Halloween. Halloween just used to just be celebrated for a few days rather than entire month. Now there's an entire month to judge the content of peoples yard displays.

[Lochloosa]

17. Trust me. Apopka, FL. Racist

[Duchess]

24. Every single person?

Sweet mind reading skills.

[Dappleganger]

44. That poster lives in my area.

We know what's in Apopka and many other areas like it. I'm not sold that it is, however.

[Dappleganger]

43. Yes it is.

But that doesn't mean *this* display is racist.

And believe me, I *hate* racism w/a passion but the display looks very similar to some things I've seen in downtown St. Augustine (home of the ultra-weird).

[Edweird]

18. Looks like a decomposed body to me.

It takes a while, but at one point we'll all look like that.

[pipi_k]

23. Exactly what I thought...

mummified dead blonde person.



But it never fails that someone will chime in to say that just about anything looks "racist". I guess it makes 'em feel good to think they're better than people they accuse of being "racist".


:shrug:

[tammywammy]

21. It looks like a zombie to me. n/t

[Dappleganger]

45. That was my first impression, too. nt

[name not needed]

25. I must say, time has not been kind to Keith Richards.

[davidinalameda]

27. that's just wrong

funny as hell but wrong

:rofl:

[d_r]

29. I vote "not racist"

just halloween

[demmiblue]

31. In the spirit of Halloween, I call "Tombstone!"

;-)

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

33. That's not a black person

The straightforward reading of the image is "that's a white witch whose face is blackened as a result of hanging and decomposition."

(Would anyone white wearing that mask for Halloween be taken as masquerading as a black person or rather as a scary corpse/goblin thingy?)

[aikoaiko]

38. I vote for Halloween fun.

:evilgrin: Halloween fun :evilgrin:

[11 Bravo]

39. Holy shit! Ann Coulter forgot her make-up, and somebody strung her bony ass up!

[Dappleganger]

47. Can't be her...

she's wearing white!


:rofl:

[Drale]

40. Well, I think its racest

but is this issue like the green blood issue in video games, would it be any better if it was a white guy? I think its in bad taste in general.

[Liberal_in_LA]

41. maybe not racial but I don't like noose displays

[Dappleganger]

49. Same here...

We prefer the witch stuck in the tree ourselves. ;)

[Liberal_in_LA]

51. lol. I prefer peaceful stuff like pumpkins

[Dappleganger]

52. We do those too...

although ours tend to look like they had their brains shot out. What can I say? We have a house full of teens and a daughter with interesting artistic abilities.

:hi:

[Vehl]

55. I second that. nt

[Dappleganger]

42. Halloween's a time to have fun...

I'd have to see better pics to decide if it looks like it's an African American effigy, however. The video makes it kinda hard to tell. With the blond wig I don't know.

Is Apopka, FL a racist area? It sure is, but that doesn't mean this display was intended to be that way. I have seen a lot of macabre displays in St. Augustine and this looks similar to some of them.

[petronius]

48. Doesn't look racist, but I've never associated hanged bodies with Halloween

Maybe other people do, but I'm more a bats and spiders and goblins type...

[Codeine]

50. It's a rotting body. Zombies are the pop culture shit right now. nt

[Swamp Rat]

54. Another drive by flame bait post by apples and oranges. n/t

[Forkboy]

61. Yep.

[Swamp Rat]

62. Maybe the OP does not like Tina Turner?

:shrug:

[proteus_lives]

59. Morons. Who would take offense at that?

It's Halloween for Christ's sake.

Some people are just too invested at being offended.

[woo me with science]

60. Oh please. Victorian gown, ghoulish face, blonde wig.

If you don't like it, stay home and keep your porch light off.

Or why not just go all the way and be like the Fundies. Hand out pamphlets on sensitivity and political correctness instead of candy. You could even start your own educational haunted house, dramatizing the evils of politically incorrect Halloween symbols ranging from hanged ghosts to witches.

I get so sick of finger-waggers and prigs who try to sanitize Halloween into a Barney episode.

[Unrepentant Fenian]

63. For Christ's sake, it's Halloween people !!!!! nt