Palin Hanging by Noose: Not a Problem

The Los Angeles Times reports that a display at the house of one West Hollywood resident has caused an uproar in the neighborhood, causing some neighbors to report a hate crime to law enforcement. The display features a likeness of Republican vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, hanging by a noose.

Los Angeles County officials from the sheriff’s department said the hanging mannequin sporting a beehive hairdo, glasses and a red coat doesn’t rise to the level of a hate crime because it’s part of a Halloween display, which features the normal goblins, spiders and such, together with a McCain doll sitting on the top of the house’s chimney surrounded by “decorative flames.” The West Hollywood mayor has nonetheless urged the house’s resident to take down the display.

I have a feeling that if the likeness of Senator Obama (or his wife) had been hanged in effigy, the uproar would’ve expanded well beyond the neighborhood by now. I also have a feeling that the hate crime charge would’ve been taken seriously. And for good reason. The lynching of blacks, including black women, is a shameful chapter in our tortured history of race relations.

But women, all women, have been subjected to abuse and brutality — in this country and around the world. Today, perhaps the most prominent example of this is the sex trade. Hundreds of thousands of young American women (of all colors) have been forced or lured into the global sex trade, not to mention the millions of women around the world.

So if the Halloween display in question had shown a likeness of Palin being sexually molested, kidnapped by the sex traffikers, or forced to engage in sex with a man against her will, would that have been inappropriate — hate speech? I’m a strong believer in free speech. I’ve come to detest politically correct speech. I think hate speech is almost impossible to define. But since we have laws that make hate speech illegal, it seems to me that these laws should be applied evenhandedly.

Hanging Sarah Palin in effigy isn’t as bad as hanging Barach Obama in effigy, but saying it’s ok by cloaking it in a Halloween display seems absurd. Attempts to regulate attitudes, ideas and even actions that involve gender and race can place us on a slippery slope. But if something is good or bad for the goose, it should be good or bad for the gander.

In any event, should you find anyone hanging in effigy in your workplace, you’ve got a serious problem. Take it down. Investigate. Fire the perpetrator. Call a meeting of employees and calmly read them the riot act. If you don’t, you’re permitting a hostile environment to be created, and if it’s based on one of the protected classes (as it surely will be), it’s illegal.

1. 

   Pat Cassidy says:

   October 31, 2008 at 12:40 pm

   Your complaint about the treatment of women is negated by your remark that hanging Palin in effigy isn’t as bad as hanging Obama. Why should anyone pay attention to your complaint if you’re being selective about which women should or shouldn’t be mistreated. The main reason it’s acceptable to have Palin hanging in effigy is that the homeowner does not share her political views. If I don’t share Obama’s views, is it O.K. for me to hang him in effigy from a tree in my front yard as part of my Halloween decor? Or should I wait to do that on the third Monday in January and claim that I’m just reminding people of what MLK strove for. How do you think that would go over? It’s these kinds of inconsistencies that perpetuate these kinds of incidents.
2. 

   John Phillips says:

   November 1, 2008 at 10:45 am

   It is difficult to be consistent, and I’m afraid I’m not above being inconsistent at times. I often try to draw workplace lessons from things that occur outside the workplace. That probably does make some of what I write subject to the inconsistency criticism.

   I intended for my post to be critical of hanging Palin in effigy. From an employment law standpoint, I said that something like this shouldn’t be allowed — period.

   Outside the employment law context, it’s a more difficult issue. I’m inclined to believe that this sort of thing is part of free speech under the Constitution. However, we do have laws now that could make this sort of thing hate speech and, thus, a crime. As I noted in my post, I think these laws are problematic — difficult to interpret and to enforce.

   Perhaps I should have said that hanging Palin in effigy isn’t generally regarded as bad as hanging Obama because of the lynching of blacks that occurred in our past, although I doubt that this would have prevented your criticism.

   In any event, I made my way onto the slippery slope I wrote about in my post, and maybe I slipped. Not the first time, and not the last.

   Thanks for weighing in.