Noose-wearing Obama costume sparks outrage at Wisconsin football game
On Saturday, a pair of fans at a University of Wisconsin game showed up with an Obama mask and a noose, sparkling outrage and backlash over the overt racism inherent in the display.
The person wearing the the Obama mask was wearing a black and white prison outfit, and the Obama mask was at one point replaced with a mask of Hillary Clinton. The other fan was wearing a mask of Donald Trump’s face.
“This is racism, why was this allowed into the stadium?” tweeted out one bystander who snapped a picture of the display.
— Prayer circles on deck: Preparing for life after First Lady Michelle Obama —
While the fans were asked “to remove the offensive parts” of the costume, they were not asked to leave because what they were doing was considered to be protected by free speech.
“The costume, while repugnant and counter to the values of the university and Athletic Department, was an exercise of the individual’s right to free speech,” the university said in a statement.
Statement from @UWBadgers on Camp Randall fan incident. pic.twitter.com/qXO2VLnjdV
— UW–Madison (@UWMadison) October 30, 2016
Twitter user @woahohkatie, who posted about the costumes, later wrote that she and a friend had received “hate tweets” and said that these tweets included “people encouraging us to kill ourselves.”
“The internet is a wild and violent place,” she said.
https://twitter.com/lcdavis1/status/792600684390559744
https://twitter.com/temitayo_coker/status/792788944148697089
I am supremely disappointed. As an alumnus, I expect an apology for lack of ejection and a promise to eject next time.
— Brad Grzesiak (@listrophy) October 30, 2016
