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There's a house in Atwater Village near the intersection of Glendale and Glenhurst that's all decked out for Halloween - dummies, sound effects, the works - and for the most part it looks delectably spooky. However, there's one particular feature of the decor turns our stomach. One of the dummies is hanging from a noose, literally "strung up" on a tree. Now, we know from last year's Sarah Palin effigy controversy that techinically we can hang whatever we want in our front yards. That said, what bothers us about this particular image is that this guy has not just been hanged, but lynched. Even though the dummy isn't black per se, (more of a ghost white) it alludes to a shameful aspect of American history and therefore has the potential to offend or upset some people.
Or are we just being oversensitive Halloween killjoys? Another dummy in this very same yard is being executed by guillotine, yet we don't find that nearly as offensive. Maybe because that type of beheading is tucked further back in time, and not historically American, so therefore not as raw. But something about the hangman just feels wrong. Though we celebrate guts, gore and even brutality this time of year, we can't help but feel that mock lynching is one step over the line of Halloween decency.
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Sounds like you caught a serious case of Liberal White Guilt.
Unless you witnessed an angry, hateful, and outdated mob hang this "man" in the tree, it would not specifically be considered a lynching.
And hanging from a city street tree, no less! Kinda makes it oddly interactive as you walk below it on the sidewalk.
Uh, it's a white dummy hanging from a tree. That already precludes it from the definition of lynching.
Being middle-class and a few generations removed French descendant, I am offended by the guillotine, which represents the years of brutal persecution and murder of my innocent ancestors.
Lynching wasn't just for black folk! Lynching was for everyone who strayed from the group, people just narrowed their focus to blacks when it looked like they were getting treated a little too humanely.
Yes you are be overly sensitive.
This is just a halloween prop. I see nothing to be offended about, unless you're going out of you way to be offended.
Lynching? Nah. Simply throw a tipped chair beneath him and it's a suicide! Albeit an highly implausible one.
I would share Ali's sensitivity if there was an actual hangman's noose involved, but like jrb said, it's just a prop.
Though I love decorating the yard for Halloween, I try not to be too tasteless and typically go for stuff that's supernatural/fantastical in nature rather than human.... not counting a few skulls and bones scattered around the grounds for flava, mwwwwahahahahaaaaaaaa.
overly sensitive!
As I mentioned, there is a noose, though it's only visible from the back. I will just say that physically walking past it simply made me...uncomfortable.
Well he is wearing overalls and work boots, so maybe it's an auto mechanic who has just screwed over a customer and got lynched for it.
I'm not an auto mechanic and have been screwed over by many so I'm not offended.
It IS A bit jarring to see it suspended above the sidewalk like that.
achieving the desired effect
If I had kids I wouldn't walk them under this. It may not be unethical but it certainly is tasteless.
little kids are too low to the ground to even notice anything hanging from a tree limb above them unless, somebody looked up and pointed it out by saying 'Ooh lookiethat!'
Dope pinata.
Are we seriously having this discussion? It's freaking Halloween! I honestly can't imagine how any well-grounded human being could have a problem with this. Pass!
You're like the Mothers Against Drunk Drivers lady who gets arrested for drunk driving... twice.
Are you secretly hanging people??
Pretty soon, no one will be able to hang people if you had your way--- :p
There is nothing offensive about this at all-- and it's supposed to be disturbing (um.... Halloween?? duh...)--- and the guy/dummy still looks alive anyway.
C'mon Ali... stop hiding behind the 'our' 'we' and 'us' fence
and let us know how this affects YOU.
I think that hanging human likeness is in poor taste. This is not a ghost-looking sheet with a face on it. This is 2009. There is more technology than we know what to do with. If you're looking to have something spooky on your front lawn there are literally millions of other ideas to do so. Let's shelve the lynching, shall we?
I think you have no life thats why your writing about this when its a halloween prop.The people that live here should be pissed at you for trying to put a tag on them as klu klux klan .
I think your response was appropriate. You didn't call the city because it's not necessarily something worth calling on but it's healthy to feel uneasy. It's not a ghost or a goblin hanging from a tree, it's just a regular guy. Your reaction was not liberal white guilt. People were getting lynched in 1950 so it's a recent, dark part of our history. I would say your reaction shows you have a concept of just how recent (even 1800s) and dark it is.
Children spent the weekend in costumes fake blood and guts and visited homes with severed limbs on the lawn and THIS is a problem. We do have real people on death row in California. The west's mythology of hangings often relates to outlaws (think of all those Eastwood movies).
I think it's good to have a holiday to expunge our animalistic bloodlust. In the scheme of evolution we're still not very far removed from the wild.
For twenty years my mom had a woman in a wedding dress hanging from her Gingko tree in her Halloween graveyard. Never heard any complaints from the NOW, arborists, or the nuptial fashion industry.
Hanging skeletons are way cooler, dude.
cool house.