For something you claim to be so racist you certainly enjoy posting the picture of it everywhere. Pretty safe to assume this isn't an issue for anyone: it's just click bait for the website

How do we know it's a white *man* ?

What a total fucking twat. Such a baby - what he really wants is to do whatever he wants without having to consider how it might seem to others. He put on a huge mammy doll and did a little dance for fucksake! He could read for 10 minutes on the subject and clearly ubserstand how uncool that is, but he's blinded by me me me and likely some personality disorder too. Such a dick.

@4, yeah, and now he's kicking back enjoying a cigar and basking in his day of virtual fame - courtesy of Charles or course.

@3 - Listen, I know you worked a long time on the puppet—you're still not seeing it, are you?

"upful" = 4chan troll

@3: Its a shitty white dude who comes from a legacy of minstrelsy and blackface, this is a great example of something with malintention.

Fuck him and his business forever.

Protip if he's reading the comments: Trump is a hatemongering piece of shit whose dad was involved with the Klan and even he knows better than to do things like this.

@7: Yup.

I wouldn't be surprised if the clueless puppeteer is one of the posters here. Perhaps even one of the first three commenters on this thread.

@11: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45g3YP7…

You sure are a garbage human being, Sargon Bighorn.

@12

Stop posting links to Tyler Perry movie compilations.

Some people are too snippy and need to be more respectful of other points of view.

The Strander comments has the best trolls.

If the puppet were racist, wouldn't you expect this thread to degenerate into a bunch of trolling and name calling instead of a nuanced and intelligent debate. Oh wait....

Charles you gullible SOB, you were trolled. And by an amateur no less.

You want to ban art? Is that you, tipper gore?

@19

what in the fuck are you babbling about?

21 your "but black Africans make black masks" argument is absurd. I'd very easily and urrefutibly explain why, but I've read your comments for enough years now to know you're not dumb and that you already get it. Don't troll - it's beneath you and too many of those here already.

My read of the puppeteer: he's well-meaning. My read of many commenters is less generous.

@No, you and undead are the trolls here. Sargon illustrates the absurdity of race relations to make a valid point, but you are too terrified of being called a racist that you can't even discuss the topic without calling other people trolls so that nobody could possibly think that you, dear Clara, are actually racist, as we inherently all are.

Yes, for centuries humans have reacted differently to other humans of different skin pigmentation. Polite society dictates that we treat each other with respect, and that should take care of it. But no, some insist to make absolutely clear that they're not a racist by casting aspersions and labeling other people as racist so that nobody looks at them.

It's terribly sad and demoralizing, but there is hope for better thinking. Will you do your part?

@22: They're a White Supremacist.

@26: Oh yeah, of course listen to the Trump voters, y'all really care about race relations. You are a legitimately terrible person and fail at all empathy your parents should have instilled in you.

You're high @26. It's bone simple. Minstrel shows were obviously racist comedy wherein white people wore grotesque Black costumes at the expense and of Black people, whom they were laughing AT, and degrading as stupid and animalistic. The puppet in question, is an obvious minstrel representation worn by a white person. It is obviously racist, plain and simple.

All the complicated psychodynamic stuff you're contending around "no you're a racist" is palaver.

What baffles me is why grouchy white men living in 2017 seem to have such a hard on for justifying, in 2017, dressing up in negative-connotation-laden Black people costumes from the era of lynchings and the n-word in casual parlance. This is where you guys choose to plant your flags and get your backs up? Totally bizarre, totally don't get it.

@28: They can dehumanize others based on race, but lord help you if you're "unpolite" to them while they're complaining that they're unfairly targeted for "being white". No, it's because you're (like the Trumpy puppeteer) the sort of basement dweller who thinks blackface is cool.

@29: I'd certainly be surprised if your average Trump voter ever spoke out against these things. But is it surprising that they're so proudly racist?

Hope he wasn't carrying that sign in the parade - "No written words, signage or recognizable logos", rule no. 1. I don't know about the costume, but racial sensitivity training? For the Fremont Solstice Parade, did I understand that right? I heard their storage area is going to be turned into more apartments, and this "might be the last year" - and maybe it should be, rather than try to pretend today's Fremont is a creative place.

The puppet is clearly based on racist imagery, but still all that happened was someone donned it and walked around for people to see. It has a "rasta" hat and a big huge mammy face. It doesn't have any insulting words or phrases on it, no insulting props in its hands, and it moved in silence.

So, people saw an offensive image in the form of a big stupid puppet head dancing around. Ohh nooo, call in the counselors.

I am just wondering what shade the puppet's "skin" and "lips" would have to be changed to for it to be not racist, or the dimensions the features would have to shrink to.

It is kind of an odd thing to be at the level of discussing ear to nose ratio and various pantones when trying to figure out how racist something may be.

Although had the lips not been painted bright red, it might have passed muster.

Honest question though: if a white person made it, but a black person used it in the parade, is it still racist?

Are all the men who dress up as women automatically sexist?

You are right, Charles. Except it doesn't look like a Rasta hat to me. But that's besides the point.

I see Charles and his merry mob of professional outrage police have no problem with the yellow skin puppet in the parade. I wonder why?

@34 so now the argument is: "if you change the representation, at some point it no longer represents what it once represented? That line is blurry so [end of decipherable argument]."

Of course signs are to some extent arbitrary. But surprises me you're trying to PoMo your way out of the obvious. Sure, if you take enough lines out of a swastika it no longer represents a swastika. But this doesn't make a swastika any less a swastika. It still carries its meaning undiluted.

Wittgenstein, in reply to radical poststructuralism, one said something like: "I know signs do connect to significations because I asked the fruit man for five red apples. He handed me a paper bag, and I gave him money. I walked around the corner, looked in the bag and there were five red apples."

If Wittgenstein had gone down to the local puppet maker and asked for racist minstrel era puppet and found the one in question in the (giant) paper bag he might have been just as confident that signs mean things.

But yes, of course if the puppet had looked like Katy Perry, a stoned ferret, or a summer squash, it would no longer be racist. That there are some points inbetween Katy Perry, stoned ferrets, summer squash and archetypal minstrel figure is utterly immaterial to the fact that the puppet is racist and the guy dancing around in it is, charitably, a stupid asshole.

But please, crab-walk your, again, totally fucking bizarre insistence on defending this obviously racist puppet to some other ancillary blind alley. Still just baffled that you guys think this is a subject in need of a planted flag.

I would call him a simple minded fool, but I'll wait for the Supreme Court ruling first before calling him a dumbass cracker.

The puppet in question is merely a vehicle for bleeding heart SJWs to take that parade incident and to extrapolate and project racism on everyone they feel doesn't comfort to their identity politics.

The most important aspects of improved race relations is not identifying racism, but by fostering understanding, coming together, and most importantly redemption.

Insulting people and pasting links to old 30's blackface clips are some of the things that aren't vary helpful.

After reading the puppeteer's letter, I am positive that I have seen him at parades in the past. Total clueless dork, BUT, it's surprising that only now is it getting this much attention.

Re swastika anology, to be clear I'm arguing that a complete swastika is a swastika regardless of the fact that it can be made not a swastika by drawing it differently. Just as if the puppet was yellow or looked like a penguin it wouldn't then be a racist figure like something out of Belgian chocolate ad from 1885.

@38 that seems about right.

@29

Because they believe the myth of white genocide.

And regarding the SJW labels, I think professor Bret Weinstein is right. I think the confederate flag ought to be cast out of public spaces but understand some the historical connection arguments against that. I think Columbus Day is complicated, particularly having read all of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca historical accounts, and knowing how hard Italian immigrants got shit on in America for a century and how much they deserve a day to celebrate Italianess.

But being opposed to this utterly obvious prancing about in a racist figure at a public parade, and the inexplicable leaping to its defense by otherwise lucid people, makes one a pearl clutching special snowflake? Horseshit. It's totally obviously offensive and insensitive and a weirdo dick move to go through the contortionism of arguing otherwise.

@37: When did I defend the puppet or make an argument for its existence? Feel free to read the comment again if you could not understand it, or simply actually read what it says instead of making something up in your head so you can be even more outraged.

@46: Constructively, and replying in good faith (this would be more easily discussed away from the swath of white nationalists posting around you) It didn't come off as a particularly useful thought exercise.

It would have been designed differently (would not have sprayed it jet black with the buffoon-horror red lipstick), and wouldn't exist at all, why would someone create a "black character" as a caricature versus creating something interesting and relevant and that makes a statement?

If it wasn't designed by a dipshit it wouldn't be offensive because the dipshit believes that the mammy character is an appropriate representation of blackness.

Someone needs to offer to talk to this guy to get him to understand what was problematic. I would recommend not leading with insults, because when white people are told they are racist without understanding why, they shut down. This is an emotional reaction to being told something about themselves in a very personal way, and white guilt (a reaction to white privilege) kicking in. Really, it is about all white people and the role we play collectively, but being called racist is a personal-feeling attack. Really, we are all racist because we all take part in our racist system, whether we like it or not.
Nevertheless: puppet guy - if you are reading this, I appreciate you tried to right the wrongs by putting out the Black Lives Matter sign - but it is unfortunately making people think you are still mocking the movement. So - if your puppet is still there, go and get it, and donate it to the dude in Seattle that uses stereotypical and hurtful images of black people to teach kids about Jim Crow and our collective history.

Also...this guy is clueless. It is our job as other white community members to make him less clueless. The best way to do that is write an open letter back to him, and get it published by the stranger. We need to explain to him what he is not seeing - he still doesn't think he did anything wrong. This is a bad thing, but it is ignorance of white privilege and institutional racism. He actually sounds like he wants to be doing the right thing (IMHO), but is totally lost. Defensiveness was EXACTLY how I felt when I was first told I was racist because I was white. Just because some of us are feeling perfect in our understandings and so "woke" we can pass judgement at the drop of a hat, we need to still *try* to bring people who aren't with us along. Otherwise, we will continue to alienate and separate ourselves. I am happy to talk to this dude, if he is up for showing who he is. Or, happy to draft a letter for editing. I get being angry - but he is not a minority in what we see from white folks in our town. Just read that article about the parents complaining about teaching institutional racism in school to get an idea of what I am talking about (http://www.theroot.com/white-liberal-tea…).

@46
People realize that your position is that few of your critics have strong compression ability, but yes, you are essentially defending the puppet. Basically, you seem to be saying, "Okay, if that puppet is racist, what is the minimum amount of alterations we can do to mitigate the racism?" But that's a foolish question. It's like realizing that tying up a noose outside a black family's home might be seen as racist, so you start asking if maybe tying a different knot or using twine instead of rope would make it not racist.

@Blip, I really don't think anyone on this thread is saying that the puppet incident is devoid of racism.

I really don't think anyone on this thread needs to be reminded by links to blackface clips about the America's racist past and present.

I really don't think anyone on this thread need to be put down and spoken condescendingly to on the subject of racism in America.

I'm surprised the cops didn't shoot that thing for walking while black.

@47: But the discussion of the color brings up the question of intent: why did his person make a representation which was so close to the blackface trope? Was he making a joke, was it supposed to be some sort of irony or satire? Was the POINT to make it look like blackface, or was it just done lazily?

Not that it changes the fact that basically this is a representation of blackface, and so is offensive to many. No on can argue that, or that the puppet would have been best left at home.

I don't find people's anger or feelings terribly interesting, but the subjective lines of what makes a representation racists in an aesthetic and historical context I do find interesting.

@49: No, you are just assuming based upon the caricature you have created of what I am in your head, because that is easier and less confusing to you.

Which is fine, but don't pretend it is anything else.

This dude knew exactly what he was doing. I can't believe that anyone was fooled by his feigning of ignorance. When his name gets out, which it will, he can more honestly explain this great message of his.

"This man is totally clueless" is probably the kindest thing one can say about the dude considering his costume and letter.
The usual rightcist suspects, always quick to pollute any news story on this site, are the real villains.

What’s up with all those pro-patriarchy nut cases anyway, aren’t they supposed to work hard and “provide?”
Instead it seems like they’re sitting at home all day, collecting unemployment from a government they detest, and use their keyboard instead of the toilet.

And for the unenlightened: yes he has a right to free speech! Not stopping him! No one did!
What you may not understand is that simply possessing the right to exercise free speech does not and will not act as protection from the consequences of your free speech. Nowhere does it read "you may spout off with complete impunity!"

I’m torn, did this puppeteer experience a brain injury or are they a very elaborate troll? I suspect they are a troll.

The puppet is obviously supposed to be a minstrel in blackface. The puppet has blue eyes.

The puppet's name means "weak of mind and body".

Leaving the puppet on a public street with a #BLM sign was done to add insult to injury.

The man who made this puppet is a racists. If there was any doubt before, this letter makes it perfectly clear.

This is another example of racists wanting to roll back the clock, or as they now say, "make America great again".
They want to go back to a time when people told racists jokes while having dinner at a place like this:
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/coon_…

oh this guy knows exactly what he's doing. you did get trolled charles, not that it's bad to make this man known. he's feigning ignorance and innocence, but i don't believe either. he's saying the n-word because black people do and calling them the redskins to honor them all rolled into one. and it's a little too perfect to be accidental.

It was Bill O'Reilly wasn't it?

Poquita *primarily* means "little one" (F). It is frequently used as a term of endearment. Read the WHOLE definition, Charles, not just the part that fits into your pre-established view.

Please note, I'm not defending the puppeteer, I'm defending the language.

I have a hard time believing that this guy could be THAT clueless. I mean, somehow so unaware of social circumstances that he was able to plan the project, design the puppet, purchase all of the materials, and make this thing over the course of maybe a few weeks and never, not once in that period of time think, "oh hey, maybe this might offend someone. This might not go over well." or not have anyone else he knows see the project and say "hey man, that's a bad idea."

This has to be intentional because to cluelessly end up making a blackface puppet means that he doesn't even understand racial tensions enough to go as far as supporting BLM in the first place. I was taught about blackface specifically while learning about Civil Rights back in middle school but even before that I knew what you could and could not do. You barely even a proper lesson at school, you'll learn enough about racism and its representations by just living long enough. You just pick it up from watching the news, watching TV (remember that George Lopez episode about the lawn ornament? You don't think that kind of thing can actually happen?), or just reading what's going on online. We have nearly infinite resources to learn maybe not everything but at least something so not knowing anything this late in life is...terrifying.

I can understand why Harper is hesitant to release this guy's name and it's definitely not because they're trying to find a solution. Harper won't release his name this soon after the event took place because the guy will be in danger. It wouldn't be surprising if his home gets vandalized or people start going after him the moment his name is out in the open. They want things to blow over first because if this guy gets offed or injured two weeks after the parade it's gonna make the FAC look really bad (well, worse they already look for allowing the puppet in the first place and the idea that they now have to institute racial sensitivity training).

In the end, I don't believe that this guy is clueless because it seems really hard not to know in this day and age. However, if he was clueless then he's also a massive narcissist to think that he shouldn't have to apologize just because he doesn't think what he did was wrong even though his puppet was actually offending people. His letter basically said that everyone got it wrong and if that's the case then it's his fault for not properly representing his message. But again, that's in the unlikely case that he's clueless, either way he's at fault here.

I think a lot of people are underestimating the human capacity for cluelessness.
Especially if this guy is an old Fremont burn-out. The old, white artists and bohemians that used to populate that neighborhood, and who were the foundation that parade was built on, are the epitome of well-meaning cluelessness. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this guy simply thought he was representing global unity.

@63 smh. nope. Poquita is a little bit. It would sound funny if you called someone Poquita. Come to think of it, you'd just sound like a clueless gringo.

Though I'll give you this much, I also thought Charles read a little too much into the meaning especially since it's common use is to define the quantity of something. But after reading that letter, I think Charles might be onto something.

What if it was art? Probing the boundaries, you know. You may be thinking, it couldn't be art, because it's offending the wrong people! Art's supposed to offend the comfortable ...

@67 Perhaps, but art still has to have purpose, meaning, and direction. Just because something is "art" doesn't mean that it is necessarily good or has a place there. I mean, there are plenty of Nazi Propaganda posters floating around in history that technically count as "art", I don't think that we need to pull them up and start shoving them in people's faces just because they're "art." Making a blackface puppet that's seemingly in support of BLM but at the same time parodies Black people in a way that causes people to feel offended doesn't have a place at what's supposed to be a light-hearted family parade for the kids does it? In the first place, it wasn't a political event so BLM had no involvement whatsoever, and if so then why would the puppet be there? Where's the artistic value in bringing up an already uninvolved party?

Hmm, maybe purpose and meaning are a bit redundant?

The paraders should have just picked the boob up by his feet and launched him into the canal - problem resolved.

@57- "rightcist"- oohhh, you combined "right" with "racist". Clever girl. You're going places, you and that keen brain.

Oops, @56. My brain was so boggled by the profundity of "rightcist" that I couldn't keep my posters straight.

I'm changing my tune. This might be the greatest troll to ever crawl out from under a bridge.

A little paper mache. Some spray paint. A frolic through Fremont. A sighting on the side of the road (notice the BLM sign is held with the puppet's feet). A fake apology letter...

Everyone on this thread (including myself) is the fucking puppet. This dickslut is pulling our strings like a master marionette with one hand and tugging his goodies with the other.

Well played sir. Well played.

This person in the puppet, be it man, minor, or other, certainly knew the puppet to be unacceptable, to be transgressive. It had to be!

The solstice parade, historically, was an opportunity to transgress, and to celebrate the possibility of transgression.

But in our contemporary Seattle, nobody really gives a crap if you wander around in public wearing nothing but a little bit of paint.

The most obvious elements of the parade that used to be transgressive are now boring rituals.

This is not to say that every transgression ought to be celebrated, that would be stupid. But let's at least stop and recognize the real intent (or the totally accidental razor-sharp commentary, for those who can't bring themselves to believe it was intentional) before we take another breath and resume screaming our demand for the name of our rather artless anonymous witch.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about - I think. @68, the parade has historically featured art of various kinds. Some of it beautiful, even spectacularly so. Some weird. Some transgressive - but in my humble opinion not like the Gay Pride parade, which I haven't seen for years but I assume still pushes the boundaries of socially acceptable. The Fremont Solstice parade version (I'm saying) isn't about pushing boundaries, they get outside the boundaries via parallel universe or other such means. Like a good acid trip, you accept the experience; it may or may not have value, but certainly does not have an explanation. People who have to get mad at someone for being on the wrong side of the boundary, are at the wrong parade. (For those who went and wonder what the hell I'm talking about ... you should have gone back in the early years, when Fremont was still run down and full of artists.)

Philly's Mummers parade had a blackface problem and went through sensitivity training: https://nextcity.org/features/view/phila…

People are ignorant. Often willfully so. Fremont parade? Full of white people. This person may well have just been a kid who decided that Seattle and the Fremont parade were too white and wanted to make a statement. Notice that it was a white woman who told him/her that she was offended.
Was its intent to be offensive? Probably not. Every day clueless people do rude things because they are too clueless to realize they are being rude.
Are we going to sit around being outraged at this clueless person? Too many people just look for things to be offended by.

@65 Yes, this is exactly what I am talking about it. It is why there are groups like Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites, European Dissent Seattle, People's Institute for Survival and Beyond, Cultures Connecting, Black Lives Matter, etc. We are a city quick to throw up yard signs, but sometimes get wary when the rubber meets the road, and need help seeing our problematic behavior. Being an ally and being angry and making moves for equity shouldn't ever turn off - it is wholly part of white privilege that it can.

I just left a message with the council main number, telling them to donate the puppet to the locally run Unspoken Truths museum: http://www.theunspokentruths.com/.

Francis7 @ 71,72
Mixed feelings: while I'm glad you find the term accurate I'm still saddened by the phenomenon.

So if the puppeteer was African-American, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Ah, the old "but it's a compliment". It's a little tired. While he may have "not" been "racist", he would have to be extremely ignorant to be surprised that other people thought so.

@66 I'll be sure to tell my friend Luis he's been speaking Spanish wrong for the past 40 years.

@83 haha cool. I'm someone's token latina friend as well.