Thread: Another year, another hanging prop causing a stir

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I am so sick of "civil rights" groups claiming that hanging Halloween props are some form of racism. As if the only hangings ever were white people lynching blacks.

I live 45 minutes from LaGrange, and our Spirit store and Halloween aisles are full of black people spending hundreds of dollars on gorey and ghoulish props. Where is the disconnect? Is this simply a case where "leaders" are speaking for the masses without actually getting a consensus?

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Halloween dummies hung by nooses stir protest
The Associated Press --

LAGRANGE, Ga. --
A west Georgia couple expects to rehang three Halloween dummies with nooses around their necks that were torn down after a civil rights group protested the display.

The dummies in front of Tommy and Deborah McCann's house in LaGrange were taken down by someone between midnight Friday and 6:30 a.m. Saturday, but Tommy McCann said he is "99-percent sure" he will rehang the dummies.

The Troup County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People picketed the display Friday afternoon after the McCanns refused to take the display down despite requests from the organization, chapter president Ann D. Gray said. The chapter made the request through police because they did not feel comfortable going on to the McCann's property, Gray said.

She called the display "culturally insensitive."

"People were calling saying their children were disturbed by what they were seeing," Gray said. "Halloween is not hanging. Hanging is not Halloween."

Deborah McCann told the LaGrange Daily News the dummies represented a monster, a space alien and a white man.

Tommy McCann said the family intended no racial overtones with the display.

"We always decorate," he said. "We decorate for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas is lit up over here."

LaGrange police said someone had phoned a death threat against Tommy McCann, leaving the message with a relative.

"They just throwed it all out of proportion," McCann said. "If they had come here and asked me nice, I probably would have took it down. But you know the way they handled it, why should I? I didn't do nothing wrong, and I didn't mean nothing by it."

McCann, who said he coaches a mostly black high school softball team and has an auction business, added, "I got black customers. They know I ain't racist. They're my friends. I ain't got no reason to be."

Gray said she had heard of other noose displays going up around LaGrange, including one that had dummies with faces painted black. Some residents are concerned the new displays are in response to the protest, she said.

LaGrange police had received no reports of new noose displays, Capt. Mike Pheil said.

Oh good God. I must end it there, or I'll delve into a tirade that won't stop.

Black people weren't the only ones lynched .... My great grand father was hung for being a horse thief ... , and I still use hanging props

I had a gallows with a rope and noose displayed in my front yard last year. I called the local police for approval, assuring them that it was not intended as a hate symbol but just a Halloween decoration. They said that it should be OK as long as the noose was out of reach of children. It's sad that I felt the need to make the call.

I swear, some people have not a single thing better to do than run around LOOKING for something that "offends their proper senses". Ugh.

I fully intend to hang pirate skellies in my yard haunt this year.

Gallows, Dance the Hempen Jig.. all historically based and not an ounce of racism in it.

Used a noose many times with no problems. It never even occurred to me that it COULD be a problem or be taken that way.

Of course, I don't live in the south, so there is no pre-loaded expectation that anything you do is somehow racist.

I suppose if you did live in the south and hung nooses up on trees in August or somtime out of context, you would have a problem, but not on halloween, and what is racist about hanging a space alien?

Racist against aliens, I suppose.

Maybe the space aliens should call the cops!

LaGrange is a small town... people know each other there. This is just another lame attempt at an organization to keep it's coffers full. The NAACP doesn't exist without racial tension.

I'm in Decatur Georgia and have been debating whether to put up hanging pirate skellies this year. I'm adding a jail to my pirate-themed display and it just seems right to add a body or two hanging from the roof of the jail. My partner (retired school psychologist) keeps shaking her head when I bring it up. To keep the peace in my home and in the neighborhood, I'll probably just give the prisoners life sentences.

You'll see 5 stories about nooses and 15 stories where Frat parties had people in blackface.

When Eddie Murphy wore whiteface, it was comedy. When they make a movie called "White Chicks," it's comedy.

I am going to make a tombstone in memory of Common Sense.

Does the Grim Reaper offend the aged and terminally ill?

I guess no noose is good news!