america: where you're free to be a racist.....Empty chair 'lynchings'

[spanone]

At least two recent incidents in which empty chairs were hung from trees by rope have critics decrying what they say are racially offensive displays meant to symbolize the “lynching” of President Barack Obama.

In Austin, Texas, a homeowner hung an empty folding chair from a tree branch in front of his house and later attached an American flag to it. He reportedly told a Democratic political blogger who said she had concerns, “You can take it and go straight to hell and take Obama with you.”

In Centreville, Va., an empty chair with a sign reading “Nobama” was strung from a tree in or near a park. “In short, this appears to be a crude metaphor for the lynching of President Obama,” wrote the blogger who posted the photo.

The image of an empty chair has been associated with Obama ever since Clint Eastwood’s headline-grabbing, non-conformist speech at the Republican National Convention three weeks ago in Tampa, Fla. The 82-year-old actor-director talked to an empty chair as if the Democratic president were sitting in it, criticizing and mocking the “invisible Obama” for 12 minutes.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/20/13989510-empty-chair-lynchings-anti-obama-protests-gone-too-far?lite

[el_bryanto]

1. Yep. Any Hateful position you want to take you can

Sometimes its depressing (see above), but better than the alternative.

Bryant

[bowens43]

2. as it should be. speech , especially poltical speech needs to be defended .

no matter how vile, you have a right to hold and express your opinions.

[spanone]

3. is racial hatred protected under political speech?

[el_bryanto]

6. Depends on the context - outright threats against the black community (or any other)

are not permitted because historically those have been backed up with actual violence and recriminations. I don't know if this is in the same boat.

It's one thing to say, for example, "Muslims aren't American and don't belong here," and another to say "I think we should start beating up all the Muslims." Both are pretty terrible of course.

Bryant

[spanone]

8. i find this no different than hanging the effigy of a black man from the tree.

it's a blatant racist statement.

[el_bryanto]

11. Except that this chair only refers to one black man - Obama

Chairs aren't generically racist symbols for black man - they are a specific non-racial symbol for one black man. The hanging part is more generalized racism, but even then, it seems more likely that the chair hanging asshole intended it to apply specifically to Obama and not to all black people.

Bryant

[Solomon]

12. boy, nice twist job there

A crock of shit. Let me explain it to you; that's fucking racist.

[el_bryanto]

13. Good response -

Perhaps I should make it clear, to those people who can't read, that I do not sujpport hanging chairs from trees - I think it's an asshole thing to do. That this is about is whether hanging a chair is protected free speech or not, and I think it is protected free speech.

That doesn't mean that I think people shoul do it.

Bryant

[spanone]

14. personally, i wouldn't give him that benefit of the doubt.

[porphyrian]

4. Free to be you and me! Unless you're black, or a liberal, or an immigrant... n/t

[leveymg]

5. McMansion with late-model SUV. Dinosaur species: Carbonmaximus Gopasaurus.

This is the type who will destroy what's left of America sooner than see it become a sustainable society.

[malaise]

7. Let them hate

It will kill them from the inside out

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Clint must be so proud.

Someone needs to go ask him about this shit. And the rest of the cast of his new movie as well. What do they think about their association with the man who gave the haters a new lynching lexicon?

[GoneOffShore]

10. I'm thinking of suspending a bottle of tanning spray out my window.

Would that be wrong?