Posted on 10/16/2007 3:31:48 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
PUNTA GORDA -- Beneath a drab and tattered Confederate flag, a noose droops from a tall wooden pole, just yards from the brilliant blues and yellows of a playground on Scott Street.
For three years, neighbors shrugged their shoulders and called the noose free speech.
Now it is causing an uproar.
First Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church pastor Carl Brooks led his congregation by the Scott Street home of Michael Whiteaker on Sunday "to see this hangman's noose in the year 2007."
"It brings to the surface what I've already known -- that racism is alive and doing well," Brooks said.
Whiteaker considers the display in his yard a harmless joke, said his sister. But to many blacks, including the region's NAACP director, it is not a laughing matter, especially in light of racial tension elsewhere in the country over the display of nooses.
"We know what's going on in Jena 6 is the result of a noose being hung on a tree," said Trevor D. Harvey, Southwest Florida director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, referring to the racial unrest in Jena, La., that followed the placement of several nooses in a tree.
"Some things we just don't take as a joke," Harvey said. "I would call the law and say 'Look, this guy is enticing something to happen.'"
Attempts to reach Whiteaker at his home and at work Monday were unsuccessful. No one answered the door at his house, but his sister Donna Sheridan, who lives nearby, said they are tiring of the attention sparked by news reports.
She said she is beginning to fear for her brother's safety because of the increased traffic by his house. "They've aggravated my brother to death," she said of the onlookers and news reporters. "They're trying to make something prejudiced about it."
Whiteaker is proud of his Southern heritage, but not prejudiced, Sheridan said. He has no plans to take down the noose, which has been up for three or four years, she added.
"He don't want to and he don't have to," she said, standing in a yard nearby.
The noose, long regarded as a symbol of hatred against blacks, emerged last year as the catalyst in a violent fight between black and white high school students in Jena.
Six black students beat a white student unconscious and now face criminal prosecution. Protesters who feel the law is taking a harder stance with the students because of their race brought national attention to the case with a protest march last month.
With that case looming as a backdrop, a black professor found a noose hanging from her office door at Columbia University in New York City last week. Nooses also were discovered in recent weeks at a Manhattan post office and at a police station in Hempstead, N.Y., prompting New York state lawmakers to propose adding the noose to a law that makes painting a swastika on private property a felony.
In Florida, it is unclear whether freedom of speech laws extend to hanging a noose in one's yard.
County Commissioner Adam Cummings, who represents south Charlotte County, including the Punta Gorda area, said he understands how the noose could be construed as offensive. But he said he would have to consult an attorney before recommending any action on the part of county government.
On Scott Street, Whiteaker's noose has caused less of a stir among his neighbors.
"It doesn't bother anybody in the neighborhood," said Joseph Byron Machuca, manager at the nearby Bread of Life Mission, which provides food and shelter to the homeless.
"He's just a redneck. Redneck people get to express themselves. This is America."
But that accepting attitude raises Willie B. Green's hackles.
"Anyplace a noose is hanging around these United States, I care about it," said Green, president of the Lee County chapter of the NAACP. "It tends to represent hate. It tends to represent the past, which is a dismal past for black people in this country."
Such a display would not be accepted in Lee County and speaks to the mind-set of people in Charlotte, Green said.
"It's a short distance as the crow flies, but it's a long way, the way people think," Green said.
Punta Gorda Mayor Larry Friedman said that "virtually everyone within the city would be happier" if Whiteaker removed the noose.
Although Whiteaker's property is a couple of blocks outside the city limits, Friedman said it reflects poorly on Punta Gorda.
"It certainly does not support an image that is in line with the city's or the county's thinking," Friedman said.
Whatever happened to realizing that some people are ignorant dumbasses and they should not be given the attention they are trying to draw?
Nooses and Rebel flags to be banned—wait for it.
This whole noose business is stupid.
Blacks were not the only ones HUNG by a NOOSE.
It was common punishment in the U.S. in the early years of our country.
I certainly wouldn’t do it in the south, but you’ve got just the fix for it. Ignore it. Intead of a few people knowing about it and ignoring it, they have now publicized it across the nation. Then some dumb kid hangs a noose on a black teacher’s door up north, and these same idiots can’t figure out why racism is suddenly on the rise again. JHC, how stupid can some folks be.
Fair enough. The proper response to free speech you don't like is to counter it with free speech you do like.
"Some things we just don't take as a joke," Harvey said. "I would call the law and say 'Look, this guy is enticing something to happen.'"
OTOH, if I were the law I'd tell Mr. Harvey to go scratch. It's free speech and it's not enticing anyone to do anything. If you lose control over your emotions because someone's got a noose hung in their yard, that's something wrong with you.
Nothing wrong in that picture..
Nice Flag and a place to dress out one of those little Florida deer..
Gosh, there's thousands of nooses hanging about right now; you've heard of Halloween, right Mr. Green?
Exactly, I was having a conversation with a black gentleman the other day regarding race. He said his daddy always told him not to take it personally and people that behave in a prejudicial manner are just plain ignorant and besides, God is going to work all of this stuff out in the end.
We both agreed that it was important that we were comfortable in having an honest conversation regarding race issues.
You can’t legislate against ignorance or stupidity and these people are a fine example of both....
someone needs to photoshop Hillary onto that toy in the pic
Nobody complained about the noose until someone discovered it could be used politically. And the guy who put it out there probably has an IQ of 70 and very bad teeth. Definitely not representative of white people as a whole.
Very true, but the noose is hanging under a confederate flag.
I think the guy is TRYING to make a point.
The best solution is to ignore him and mock his stupidity
This Whiteaker guy (did this clown actually change the spelling of his name so that he could have "White" as the first syllable?) is a loser for his cause but I would suggest that Mr. Harvey doesn't want a legal precedent that could bite back the losers of his advocacy base.
“Whatever happened to realizing that some people are ignorant dumbasses and they should not be given the attention they are trying to draw?”
Remember thats the rule if your white. If your black and hispanic everything and everyone is a racist and you get to blame everyone for your problems. Also the media gets to come along and spread the lies for you. Where have you been? :)
“Whatever happened to realizing that some people are ignorant dumbasses and they should not be given the attention they are trying to draw?”
Remember thats the rule if your white. If your black and hispanic everything and everyone is a racist and you get to blame everyone for your problems. Also the media gets to come along and spread the lies for you. Where have you been? :)
And no right is absolute. I don't know if the combination of nooses and Confederate Flags crosses the 'screaming fire in a crowded theatre' threshhold but it comes pretty close.
OTOH, I abhor "hate crimes".
What's a guy to do?
Exactly.
Agreed, but it is not new esp in the South. There was always that cracker shack out past the tracks that everyone knew about and shook their heads, black and white. This preacher saying he isn't going to take it just makes this inbred hick smile.
As my grandmother used to say, "they are just trying to get attention because their mother didn't give the right kind when they were young, bless their hearts."
Granny was smart lady.
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