Spooks.

I saw these little dudes (bottom pic), and was reminded of the article below. The top pic is from the actual article. Top-shelf journalism.

Woman's Halloween display called racist

By ABBY SIMONS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

October 11, 2007

52 Comments

Marcie Brightwell of Des Moines figured that if any part of her annual Halloween yard display drew a complaint this year, it would be the bloody guillotine with the life-size decapitated “victim.”

That or the body with the exposed guts that looked as if it had been torn in half by a lawn mower.

But it was a dummy hanging from a noose that raised the ire of a Des Moines school bus driver who saw Brightwell’s display as she shuttled children to school Thursday.

“To me, it’s disturbing. To me, it’s racist,” said Marilyn Hawkins, who is black. “With all the racial tension going on, why would you have a noose around a dummy’s neck hanging out of a tree? I know it’s a Halloween thing, but still, what kind of message are you sending to the kids out there?”

Brightwell, 53, has decorated her east-side lawn with gory success for the past 21 years. Hers has become a favorite stop for neighborhood trick-or-treaters.
“We had wanted to do the hangman for quite awhile, and this is the first time we could do it,” she said. “I’m not out to offend anybody. We were more worried about the other things, to be honest.”

The shoeless dummy, dressed in a flannel shirt and jeans, has a black-haired monster mask. There was no effort to make it look African-American, Brightwell said, adding: “It’s funny that of all the different things we’ve done, that’s the one that affects people.”

Hawkins, 56, sees nothing funny about it.

“With the Jena 6 thing that’s going on, we don’t need that stuff in Iowa, not even in Des Moines,” Hawkins said. “I think she should take it down. I think it’s very offensive.”

Six black teenagers in Jena, La., were accused of beating of a white student in December after a series of racial incidents that involved nooses hung from trees outside a high school. Black leaders have organized nationwide protests to demand that the charges be dropped.

Brightwell, whose display has been up for about a week, said she has no plan to take down the dummy, but “if it was suggested to me, I would consider it.”