Update: I’ve just done something I’ve never done before: edit a couple of comments. I don’t know if I’m old, or oversensitive, or too PC or whatever, but I can’t take certain words anymore — at least not outside of settings and meanings where there is clearly no other that will express something that needs to be said. So I’ve edited, gently the use of the word we often represent here as Ni-Clang!
So — now you know. I do read every last comment on any post I write, sometimes very long after the event, but every one. It’s absolutely not my place to make any change in any of them — if you’re pissing on the campfire too often, I’d consider a ban, but I’ve never actually levied one. And I’m surely not going to set up as the language police. But I guess I do have trigger words. Don’t try any word for “Jew” that starts with a “k”; don’t use the N-word just for fun and so on. I am genuinely sorry if you think this is arbitrary, harsh, or overly sensitive. But not sorry enough to restore the words that bugged me to the thread.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming:
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Via TPM I came across this repulsive story:
Officials have confirmed that an offensive Halloween display at a Fort Campbell residence has been removed.
A ClarksvilleNow.com reader sent a photo of the display, which shows what appears to be a black family hanging from a tree in a yard on Litwin St.
The child in the display has a knife in its back and one of the figures holds a sign that is not legible in the photo.
Officials at the base got in touch with the resident, and, as reported,
[Public Affairs spokesperson Brendalyn] Carpenter said it was her understanding that the display was not intended to be offensive, but authorities deemed it could be interpreted as such.
Pretty on-target deeming there, I’d say.
The display itself is ne plus ultra of the insult here — but that “not intended to be offensive” is in some ways the longer knife. That someone could say that is at once a display of enormous contempt for those who know what that little tableau actually means, and, if it were in any way a sincere expression of someone’s regret, testimony to the “airborne toxic event” quality of 21st century racism. How much awful stuff does one have to simply accept as the natural order of things to be unable to see that putting up a lynching diorama in your front yard is the work of a thug, a vicious and actually threatening act.
Worst of all: this is done in the context of Halloween, which means whoever did this was ok with a bunch of little kids — many of them (army base and all) African American — walking by.
But, of course, John Roberts with his co-conspirators have told us that race is no longer an issue in this country, and he is an honorable man. So are they all honorable men….
Image: Jack Chaddock, Zero Hour- the Mareth Offensive, 1943. Cameron Highlanders, 1943. I have to admit that I was at a loss as to how to illustrate this post. What image captures without celebrating the wretchedness? So I’ve opted for this: how to be offensive intentionally.
Belafon
“Not intended to be offensive” is the ask forgiveness version of “I’m not racist, but…”.
Omnes Omnibus
If the folks who put that up are active duty military, they are going to be in real trouble.
srv
Speaking of lynchings, Ta-Nehisi Coates is unhappy with Charles Barkley:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/10/charles-barkley-and-the-plague-of-unintelligent-blacks/382022/?single_page=true
Gin & Tonic
I’m curious. If it was not intended to be offensive, what was it intended to be? Humorous? Educational? Cautionary?
Trollhattan
My calendar must be broken because it says “2014,” not 1914. I waz robbed.
Doubly ironic, given the military was the place where integration was formalized as federal policy.
ETA Do NOT under any circumstances read the Tennessee paper’s comments.
japa21
Of course it wasn’t intended to be offensive. It was meant to convey a message to all them darkies that they better stay in their place.
I seem to remember Bull Connor saying the fire hoses weren’t meant to be offensive, either.
And of course, to a certain percentage of people who saw the display, it not only was not offensive but they cheered the display, inwardly if not outwardly.
ruemara
Every year, the same holiday. Assholeaween.
NotMax
No skeletons looking on decked out in white robes and hoods?
Mnemosyne
@Gin & Tonic:
I’m guessing it was supposed to be horrifying or terrifying, since it was a Halloween display. But since Halloween is supposed to be a fantasy space where you imagine bad things that could happen (like a masked serial killer coming after you), putting up a display with real-life horrors is, at best, bad form.
A lot of people do seem to treat Halloween as though it should be an offense-free zone where they can let their id out of the box with no repercussions, but, yeah, not so much.
ETA: There will almost certainly be haunted houses this year that feature simulated beheadings by ISIS. Count on it.
Woodrowfan
one comment on another story about this noted that it was a re-creation of a scene from some horror movie I’d never heard of. The commenter noted that the family in the movie was white so this could not be racist. Maybe. Of course that doesn’t account for the creator of this little display using black trash bags. Golly, I am sure that was totally an accident, gee. (sarcasm)
Belafon
@Mnemosyne: Those will probably occur at the church haunted houses that include the “I was a botched abortion baby” scenes.
JPL
I don’t mean to offend anyone but f..k Roberts and the rest of the Conservatives.
Mnemosyne
@Belafon:
I think secular ones are going to pick it up, too, though. I also would not be surprised at seeing Ebola Zombies lurching out at people.
(I do not go to haunted houses because I am a giant chicken and get very panicky if people lunge/grab at me, so I will not know for sure if my predictions come true.)
ETA: Shorter me — there’s a fine line between clever and stupid.
Ben Cisco
@Omnes Omnibus:
That would depend on the leadership structure on the base and their relationship with the surrounding community. If the local community is full of ‘baggers, this asshole could very well wind up Marshal of the local Thanksgiving Day parade.
Mike E
@srv: I met Sir Charles at a nightclub, bumped into him (Round Mound of Rebound fit him to a tee) surprised…I said, “Hey Charles, you’re awesome!” and he was very pleasant, shook my hand and replied, “Thank you very much, sir, thank you.” This was right after the time he threw some guy thru a bar window. I like Charles, but he can be an idiot (he wanted to run for Gov of Alabama as a Repub).
Woodrowfan
@Ben Cisco: Fort Campbell Kentucky?> yeah, deep inside teabaggerstan.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Cisco: The residence is on the base, so the surrounding community wouldn’t come into play.
Ben Cisco
@Woodrowfan: In that case, local hero, ‘Real ‘Murkan status. Won’t have to buy a drink the rest of his tour.
Mnemosyne
@Mike E:
I’m still convinced that Weight Watchers made Barkley do this commercial because he was caught on a live mic saying things that could be implied to be bad about the program (Barkley is a WW spokesmodel). In context, he actually was saying really good things about WW in his Barkley-ish way: basically, that it was so easy to follow and he was losing so much weight on it that it was almost a “scam” that they would pay him to do it.
kindness
What I find really curious is the very same people who claim to see no injustice or racism in cases like this always seem to also claim to be good ‘Christians’. How does that work exactly?
Patricia Kayden
@Ben Cisco: Does it matter where they are located if they are part of the military? Doesn’t the military have regulations/rules that apply to military members no matter where they are? I would love to hear an explanation of how this is not racist and doesn’t violate any military codes of conduct.
Ben Cisco
@kindness: For varying values of “good Christian”, apparently.
scav
@kindness: For the same reason Christian adulterers and terrorists get away with doing any and all things. Christians are pre-forgiven for not living up to their ethos. Everybody else must be hauled over the coals for not attaining perfection in a system they are not a part of — don’t forget the instant “personal merit” bonus that must instantly be awarded to individuals that mention the Baby Get-out-of-repercussions-of-sins card.
NonyNony
@Woodrowfan:
Let’s point out that white privilege is a hell of a drug. I actually can see a white guy doing this as a “scary Halloween display” without even thinking about the fact that when you use black trash bags to make the heads in your stuffed clothes costumes you’re going to end up with what looks like a lynching. In fact I know plenty of guys who in their youth wouldn’t have made the lynching connection at all because of ignorance and their own privilege. (I might not have even made that connection until I got into college to be honest – I don’t think I got much of a visual edu-ma-cation on racism in the US until then. I know we talked about it in High School, but I doubt that I ever would have seen an image of a lynching until college. But that’s not an excuse just an explanation – it would be an example of my own ignorance and privilege at work.)
So this might be the kind of casual and pernicious accidental racism that infects society generally, rather than the overt Stormfront/KKK style racism that it looks like. The fact that the person involved took it down when it was pointed out to them rather than holding firm and insisting on their “constitutional rights” makes it sound more like the former than the latter (though if it is military base housing as being reported then it could still be the latter, with the need to follow orders trumping their own outrage about being told what to do.)
Ben Cisco
@Patricia Kayden: In order, no, yes, and clearly it is racist and violates codes of conduct. My point (inartful though it may be) was that a law or code of conduct is only as good as its enforcement. There will be no statement on what, if any, punishment comes to this individual, which makes it damned convenient for there to be none at all.
Omnes Omnibus
@Patricia Kayden:
states:
It’s the go to for things like this.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Patricia Kayden: Absolutely. On base? They could get booted out of base housing and face disciplinary action as well.
Off base? Let that racist freak flag fly, fucker. Yeah, there are rules but I’ve never seen ’em enforced.
Butch
The comment thread that follows the Clarksville.now story is enough to make you give up on humanity.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ben Cisco: Just speaking from my experience as an army officer, I cannot imagine any chain of command not looking to take action here. It made the news; base officials had to tell the people to take it down. Shit rolled downhill onto the guy’s battalion commander. That shit is going to continue to roll downhill.
the Conster
I never thought I was naive – I’ve been a lot of places and done a lot of things, in this country and out of the country and not at just nice white resort places, but I’ve been taken to school the past few years – actually since Jan. 20, 2009. The three white guys who moved me last month were talking to each other in front of me about how they hate blacks, and one said to another how he’d put up a sign at his house that said “no n—–s allowed” if he could. At least he thought he couldn’t – it’s Massachusetts. Nothing like this surprises me anymore. All the out racists and down low racists are feeling bolder and better about themselves than they’ve been allowed to feel in a long time. Thanks Supreme Court for deeming racism over.
Tree With Water
We Americans ask one hell of a lot from our military. One demand must include strict Army vigilance in keeping an eye peeled for potential William Calley’s. Court martial proceedings are in order now, and let the chips fall where they may..
scav
@Patricia Kayden: Military is supposedly all honor, non-adulterous and non-rapey as well, to pick one behavior that dim outsiders might expect they wouldn’t pass over when committed against their own comrades (and comrades wives). Hell no, apparently they sometime throw going away party skits celebrating the counterexamples. It’d be nice to see if the mil can handle this flavor of crap better than boys being boys genre.
Ben Cisco
@Omnes Omnibus: I would tend to agree in this case ONLY b/c it got the attention that it did. That clown won’t get cashiered out though.
Another Holocene Human
@srv: Whatever. Successful, turns reactionary, starts spouting reactionary nonsense when he starts feeling more hate than love from the fans because they don’t understand what happened. He hasn’t played for years. His comments sound like projection. He lacks the insight to understand why he isn’t getting all the love from the little people he thinks he’s entitled to, so he calls THEM stupid.
TNC is super pissed at the president for dabbling in respectability politics and wouldn’t ya know, it takes only a few sentences before he’s hammering that Obama nail again.
Yawn.
SatanicPanic
@the Conster: Sounds like where I grew up. I don’t think racism is going anywhere fast. It might be going somewhere slowly.
SFAW
@the Conster:
There’s been a large redneck streak in MA for a long time. Not necessarily big enough to elect a Mitch McConnell or Caribou Barbie on its own, but probably 27 percent or larger.
Another Holocene Human
@scav: Insta-grace is hilarious.
If you question that God wipes away all their sins by saying magic words, they accuse you of implying that God is not all-powerful.
So in their world, God is all-powerful but also hella stupid. (And don’t forget, plays favorites.)
Says more than they intend to about the regional parenting styles.
the Conster
@SFAW:
The redneckiest redneck I ever saw was in Danbury CT. It’s a state of mind.
Another Holocene Human
@Butch: Did SMOTI raise the batshit signal and is it flooded with newly registered trolls?
Or, worse, is it the usual trolls who run the comments sections showing out faster than the paper’s legal team can apply hot pokers to the ass of the manager who controls the overtime budget for moderators?
Patrick
@kindness:
These are the same ‘Christians’ who own guns in spite of “thou shalt not kill/love thy enemy. These are the same ‘Christians’ who had no problem whatsoever with attacking Iraq unprovoked. These are the same ‘Christians’ who have no problem with Gitmo.
Ir really makes me question my faith. But then I remember the wise words from Gandhi. “I have no problems with your Christ. Its his followers that scare me.” Not exact quote, but that’s the gist of it.
SFAW
@Tree With Water:
Not quite sure how we got from an idiot thinking racism and lynching is funny, to My Lai. I mean – except for Wayne LaPierre and The Fucking Nuge and similar – stringing up small numbers of black people Edit by Tom Levenson is more socially acceptable in the USA than murdering 300-plus villagers with M-16s.( I think the current body-count limit on socially-acceptable gun-related mass murders is about 30 +/-. Although, that could change, of course.)
Iowa Old Lady
I just got a new political phone call from the Rs. They tell me that my neighbors are voting in high numbers, and I don’t want to be the only one left out, do I? Apparently it’s important that I vote, “especially in Black Hawk County.” (I voted weeks ago)
Black Hawk County has John Deere manufacturing facilities, so there’s a strong union presence. Also there’s a larger minority population that is usual in Iowa.
Another Holocene Human
@the Conster: Me too. I grew up in Mass in a liberal bubble where I didn’t hear much in the way of racist statements until high school (and even then, it was from my mom who was starting to let her freak flag fly–first, about “the Jews” (aka most of my friends and classmates)). My mother is from OK, very racist place.
I, too, have been taken to school, but I gotta say, I think the real floodgates opened in 2010 during the Summer of Hate when the GOP decided to dig in and use xenophobia to try to win elections, and none of the GOP elder statesmen said a motherfucking thing.
And it’s just gotten worse, and worse, and worse to the point that, yeah, all of the dipshits plugged into conservative “activism” or FOX, or hate radio or GOP mailing lists feel perfectly free to say openly racist shit that hasn’t been acceptable outside of Romney’s quiet rooms since the early 70s.
IT’S FUCKING DEPRESSING. It makes me want to vomit all the time. And it’s all over the country although the racists can only win elections in some parts of the country, not all of them.
And there’s a long game here, too. Obama’s presidency has a profound affect on young children and their conception and formation of how the world works and what is acceptable and normal. By demonizing Obama they are teaching children not that, hey, you can have a boss who’s a Black guy and that’s normal, but that there is something sinister and suspect about a Black dude with power. They are perpetuating the white-against-black racist trap of American history, the violence, Jim Crow, all of it.
I think the hate is actually worse in non-slave states than the slave states. The hate in the slave states is a long-standing tradition and the pseudo-historic and pseudoscientific rationalizations are subtle, refined, bloodless. The entrenched power is entrenched. Also, South Carolina GOP got trolled into putting people of color in top statewide positions. Which is interesting. (And GA has Herman Cain, FL Allen West–granted, shucking and jiving is nothing new, but it speaks of exposure, a comfort level, there’s no xenophobia there, just ideological insanity, contempt, privilege, one more aspect of the same old game.)
But you have lots and lots of areas that were strong Union areas during the 1860s, even Abolitionist areas, that are full of virulent anti-Black racism now. It’s very disturbing. The xenophobia is there because these are areas that are over 90% white (unlike America as a whole).
Very, very scary.
Tree With Water
@SFAW: I understand your confusion, but I do see a connection between the terrorist customs of Jim Crow America and what was unleashed at My Lai. I just not up to attempting to explain it.
Another Holocene Human
@SFAW: They are not 27%.
They are a minority in the rural Conn Valley part of the state, and they are stronger outside Worcester and in the exurban ring around Boston, also the North Shore all the way to the NH border.
I think they will start flipping some US House seats soon. They’re already going for a batshit rump caucus in the Lege.
You gotta realize, Boston dwarfs the rest of the state in population.
Boston has its own fuckin’ reactionary Catholic male chauvinist pig yobs, and they vote. But they still vote D and came very close to putting their guy (Lynch, who is a crook and a misogynist) in a Senate seat.
Exurban “professionals”/social climbers and blue collar white guys in Mass may both listen to Howie Carr but they HATE each other. See that snow plow guy who posted a clip up on youtube of him cussing out all the white collar dickbags who left their cars parked curbside before a massive blizzard. They got him fired! And the plows are usually all independent contractors. (White collar HATE the snow plow guys, there was this huge thing about GPSing them all because supposedly they were stealing gov’t monies after storms. Shit, I never noticed any roads unplowed but I guess I’m not an exurban prick with an SUV.)
Another Holocene Human
@Tree With Water: Me too. Has everyone forgotten what happened to the Freedom Riders?
Violence is as American as cherry pie.
SFAW
@Tree With Water:
I guess I can see a connection – it’s easier to kill people you don’t see as fully human, is what I’m guessing you’re thinking – but I’m not sure Army brass would classify the two actions as being similar enough in their genesis to warrant investigation (vis-a-vis potential war crimes).
But I’m not a vet, so I guess my thoughts on Army thinking are questionable at best.
Villago Delenda Est
If the individual responsible for this is a military member (and that seems likely) their next performance evaluation should indicate that they’re not fully supportive of the Army’s equal opportunity policy.
This should shitcan their career, if any.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ben Cisco: What they did is a gross violation of Army EO policy, as I mentioned before.
Omnes is right about this, shit flows downhill. The chain of command is on it. The perpetrator is toast.
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL: With red hot pokers attached to power drills.
Tree With Water
@SFAW: Of course, among the armed forces first and foremost responsibilities is to weed out those unfit to serve.
gelfling545
@kindness: Well, Martin Luther in his discourse on the commandments in the Small Catechism does, in his discussion of “Thou shalt not bear false witness” enjoin Christians to interpret their neighbors’ actions & motivations in the most charitable way. I am hard pressed to discover a “charitable” interpretation of this act, however. Ignorance rather than malice?
Tony J
I’m sure it’s been said before and better, but ISTM that there are two types of people in post-racial America. Those who see shit like this and think it’s wrong, and those who see exactly the same thing but think it’s right.
The second bunch are arseholes.
cdmarine
I’ve seen some pretty horror-oriented Halloween displays, including hanging-related ones, so in the abstract, I don’t necessarily have an issue with the idea of a realistic “horror” display for Halloween. And, in fact, I can pretty easily imagine someone doing this without an ounce of racist intent. Big garbage bags (if those are what those are) tend to be black, and big garbage bags are convenient for stuffing with leaves and whatnot. However, I can’t for the life of me imagine finishing that display, stepping back to admire my handiwork, and not thinking, “OMG… oh, shit… that looks, uhhhh… Yeah, I’m gonna take that down now, and go back to the drawing board.” That’s the part of it that gives me pause (as opposed to the impulse to create the display in the first place).
As someone else mentioned above, the initial creation of the display could just be a function of white privilege in that a black person would never reach for the black garbage bags in the first place, because they’d already know what that’s going to look like (and that’s assuming the person in question would even do a hanging motif at all, which I imagine, is probably unlikely, as well). Anyway, point is, I can see privilege blinding the white person reaching for the black garbage bags, but it’s really, REALLY hard to see how you don’t immediately grok what the whole scene looks like once you put it up there.
Elie
This makes me sick in a place that is hard to explain.
The best vehicle that I can think of to explain was the feeling that I had after watching the scene in 12 Years a Slave when Northrup was almost lynched except the balls of his feet were allowed to touch the ground just enough to prevent him from actually having the full weight of his body kill him. He was left in that position for a day to teach him not to talk back to white people. The feeling that I had was priimal — something worse than fear or dread — something fundamental –
I know however, that while these creatures may put up these symbols, that we will never go down withtout a fight. My husband was talking to a young soldier on a recent trip who was sharing his world view with him. My husband happens to be white and the kid didn’t know that he was married to a black woman. He shared that there was a growing group of racist “Oath Keepers” with a behind the scenes but increasingly strong influence in the military and their perception of this country as needing to be “taken back”.
I tell you what. Never again. NEVER
Mnemosyne
@cdmarine:
This right here.
Woodrowfan
@NonyNony: that’s a good point, I had not considered it that way. you may be right… they just grabbed the trash bags from the shed to use. but I do wonder how they missed seeing it once it was up…
Brother Dingaling
It’s the first scene in the found footage from Sinister. The family has bags on their heads and are all hung from the same branch. It’s actually pretty horrifying in the movie. The guy used black trash bags presumably because those are the trash bags he had when he made the display.
People, use your heads. If this is on base there is no way he meant to put up a display of a black family hung from a tree unless he was trying to get discharged/demoted/reprimanded/beaten up by his neighbors. You don’t even know what race the homeowner is.
Tom Levenson
@Brother Dingaling: See above (IMHO) — it’s not simply that he/she used black trash bags … but that he/she didn’t see what had been created with that use. So if the defense is “it didn’t look bad to me” — I refer you to the airborne toxic event possibility in the OP, which is to me almost worse than deliberate, explicit racism. If you can’t even see what’s before you’re eyes, we’ve all lost.
SFAW
@Tree With Water:
Except during the Bush years. “Section 8? No problem! How about re-upping?”
Disclaimer: I have no idea if what used to be referred to as a “Section 8” is current terminology. Nor even if it was the right term when I was a kid.
The Pale Scot
But Miserable fat Belgian bastards! is still Ok, right?
Raven Onthehill
<sarcasm>It’s obviously about ethics in videogame journalism.</sarcasm>
I think that line is going to be around for a while.
Tom Levenson
@The Pale Scot: OK by me. My vague rule of thumb: if the group you’re insulting can retaliate w. equal e- and affect, then I’m good. If the insult has the primary function of non-humanizing the other then I’m out.
So, in the vein of a miserable fat Belgian bastard, I am totally down with “You don’t frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called “Arthur King,” you and all your silly English K-nig-hts.”
Cermet
P/m lost – I’ve never seen anyone use those specific words here during my random readings; I’m sure some have but it is hardly a problem that I’ve seen. Of course, some years ago, I started the old Blazing Sandles N-Clang joke that many have picked up since.
kc
@Brother Dingaling:
Okay, that’s the only thing I’ve read that makes sense. Esp. after image-googling that movie.
A bit grisly for a neighborhood Halloween display, though.
Mnemosyne
@kc:
It might help explain why someone might not immediately recognize the offensiveness — if you’re focused on But it’s from the movie! you might not realize that the 80 percent of your neighbors who didn’t see the movie would view it as something else.
ETA: I’ve heard of Sinister but I don’t know any of the iconography of it. It’s not like putting someone in a ski mask or razor gloves.
kc
@Mnemosyne:
I’d never heard of the movie before I read Brother Dingaling’s post, so I wouldn’t have gotten the reference either. A big dude in hockey mask, now THAT I would have gotten.
I wonder how old this homeowner is. A lot younger than most of us, I’d guess.
mclaren
Why would someone use these kinds of racial epithets in public and not expect to get edited, banned, or otherwise slammed?
I just don’t understand Americans.
MJ
@Elie: Thank you for writing this. I imagine the gut-wrenching terror a little kid seeing that would have felt. It made me tear up a bit and feel nauseous just to look at the picture. And for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS below the original article.
mere mortal
“I’d consider a ban, but I’ve never actually levied one.”
Going to assume I’m the only person who found this an incredibly great coinage if Levenson eventually takes action to ban a commenter.
*his comment was so out of bounds, I had to Levy him from the website*
I suppose this is generalizable, you could get Cole-cocked, Cracker-ed, (White-listed? Elon-gated?), I’m running out of material here.
jimmiraybob
While we’re considering the language that we’re using with respect to others, we could maybe think about this phrase a bit. Perhaps “beyond the pale” might suffice.
Tom Levenson
@jimmiraybob: You’re right. Changing.
arielibra
@jimmiraybob: Beyond the pale referred originally to the native Irish, as opposed to the Anglo-Irish occupying class. It may be turtles all the way down…
jimmiraybob
@arielibra:
RE: “beyond the pale” – I did not know that. Another one cross off the list. I’m waiting to see who comments about the phrase “turtles all the way down” before I say anything else. :)