Appalling Incident at Missouri State Fair: “Anyone Want to See Obama Run Down By a Bull?”
Right wing racism just keeps getting more and more overt. Here’s the latest absolutely disgusting example, reported by the Kansas City Star: Shameful Missouri State Fair Stunt Smears Obama.
The taxpayer-supported Missouri State Fair is getting a lot of negative publicity in social media Sunday afternoon following a report of a shameful stunt that reportedly occurred Saturday night in Sedalia.
The story is posted to Daily Kos and Show Me Progress. And look for reaction with #MoStateFair on Twitter.
Basically, a clown wearing a mask of President Barack Obama came out during the bull riding event. The crowd was asked if it wanted to see Obama “run down by a bull.”
Perhaps not surprisingly given the anti-Obama feeling in rural Missouri and among the kinds of people who largely attend the state fair, things got worse from there.
Egged on by the crowd and the announcer, “One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy. Finally, a bull came close enough to him that he had to move, so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands.”
Show Me Progress has the Facebook post from the witness to this appalling incident:
Last night, Lily and I took a student from Taiwan to the rodeo at the Missouri State Fair. Just prior to the start of the bull riding event, one of the clowns came out dressed in this. The announcer wanted to know if anyone would like to see Obama run down by a bull. The crowd went wild. He asked it again and again, louder each time, whipping the audience into a lather. One of the clowns ran up and started bobbling the lips on the mask and the people went crazy. Finally, a bull came close enough to him that he had to move, so he jumped up and ran away to the delight of the onlookers hooting and hollering from the stands. We then left quickly and quietly. Lily’s student is an inquisitive boy and asks a lot of questions about what he sees, and though he had never been to a rodeo he asked nothing about it, nor anything about America this time. We rode the sixty miles home in silence. In a way I’m glad. I had no answers for him.
(h/t: James.)
From the Missouri State Fair Facebook page:
The performance by one of the rodeo clowns at Saturday’s event was inappropriate and disrespectful, and does not reflect the opinions or standards of the Missouri State Fair. We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark.