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So, do you honestly think this man intended his hanging the chair to symbolize a lynching?
He originally hung the empty chair from a tree branch in his yard. The next day he added the American flag. It is obviously a political statement, but is it necessarily a racist statement?
Film footage of confrontation with the man while he takes down the empty chair.
If he had tied a noose, maybe? Very odd, and obviously his point was lost in translation somewhere. Seems like a stretch to call it racist, but who knows?
Unless he's really stupid or like, 8 years old, I don't see how he could NOT sense that people would find this racist.
OK, you want to symbolize killing the president (that's another problem), but everyone knows that a symbol/effigy/whatever of a black man hanging from a tree is still a very touchy subject in this country!
I don't think it is racist either. It is an empty chair hanging from a tree. I also would not have tied it into the election had I seen it, even though I did see the Eastwood speech.
If he had tied a noose, maybe? Very odd, and obviously his point was lost in translation somewhere. Seems like a stretch to call it racist, but who knows?
I agree, if he had intended it to represent a lynching he would have probably used a noose instead of several half hitches. He originally displayed on the the chair with no flag. I suspect he hung it up because otherwise it would have been nothing but a chair on the lawn. No political statement there.
He later added the flag to make it clear that it was a political statement.
I think he was surprised that so many people misinterpreted it as a racist statement. Which is why he took it down. If he had intended it to be a racist statement, I don't think he would have taken it down.
A neighbor how knows him said:
Quote:
Pantazes talked to a neighbor who told her that Johnson is an overall “good neighbor and a nice guy. He’s just a really conservative Republican.” The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, thought the issue was taken out of context.
In Ken Herman's interview at the Statesman, this is all he could get out of Bud Johnson, the man who hung the chair:
Quote:
"It's an empty chair," he said. "That's all it is."
I asked what statement he was trying to make.
"What does the empty chair mean?" he asked. "What does it mean to you?"
I told him it could mean a lot of things and mentioned the Republican National Convention.
"That's exactly what it meant," he said. "That's all you get."
With that, he headed toward his home.
"Can you tell me a little about yourself?" I asked as he walked away. "Are you a retiree?"
"That's none of your business," Johnson correctly answered. "And don't come on my property."
I asked why he had taken down the chair.
Johnson: "Because of mistaken conception."
Me: "So you decided to make the change because some people are upset?"
Johnson: "No. I decided to make the change because some people are stupid."
IN the KEYE-TV Video, which now appears to have been taken down or has temporarily stopped working, as I recall it, Mr. Johnson said he was taking the chair down because of people's misconceptions.
I don't know about racist, but it's an odd political statement that most people would find confusing. Also, his explanation doesn't really jive either. You can put the chair anywhere..not sure why you'd need to hang it from a tree. I've seen a lot of irrational anger/downright hatred being generated towards the President that I find frankly nauseating (i.e. people calling on him being assassinated, in addition to the usual racist nonsense), so I can see why people (who mind you, aren't minorities) would take offense.
It's also gotten ridiculous how any disagreement with or protest against the current president is automatically called out as racist. That is getting OLD. Nothing is different than it was with Bush, except in Bush's case the hateful depictions extended beyond a few crazies and into mainstream music videos and celebrities/entertainers.
I don't know about racist, but it's an odd political statement that most people would find confusing. Also, his explanation doesn't really jive either. You can put the chair anywhere..not sure why you'd need to hang it from a tree. I've seen a lot of irrational anger/downright hatred being generated towards the President that I find frankly nauseating (i.e. people calling on him being assassinated, in addition to the usual racist nonsense), so I can see why people (who mind you, aren't minorities) would take offense.
A chair anywhere, just sitting on the ground, is just a chair.
A chair hanging from a tree attracts attention to it, add a flag and it is a political statement.
I too agree that there has been too much hatred directed at our president, I am sure a lot of it is racist,, which I find disgusting. But I can see how that was not the intention here with this chair.
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