America has collectively gone nuts. Among other things, garment-rending mobs from the far-right to the far-left to all points in between appear to be blaming President Obama for almost literally everything, so given the context it’s really not too shocking to see a brutally racist billboard in Cleveland calling for Obama’s impeachment and featuring a gigantic pair of black, well, nuts.
The billboard’s message is printed in bold, all-caps text reading: “ENOUGH WITH THE LYING,” “IMPEACHMENT NOW” and “YOU’RE OUT OF CONTROL,” with a jet-black caricature of the president. It continues with the text, “DOES ANYONE IN CONGRESS HAVE A SET OF THESE?” And just above the words “TESTICLE FORTITUDE” is a jet-black, weirdly penis-less scrotum labeled “The Big Kahunas,” an obvious reference to Obama’s childhood in Hawaii.
Cleveland resident Nancy Sysack — yes, “Sysack” — who operates Harry X. Sysack Sign Co., posted the billboard to attack the president and, as with most of the screeching about impeachment, to grab a little attention, “Sometimes you’ve got to put things out there in order to make a point and get people to turn their heads,” she said, “There’s more graphic stuff in the art museum.” Well, the graphic stuff in an art museum is in a museum , not along a street in Cleveland, and considerably less racist/obnoxious than this.
Credit where credit is due: at least she had the, um, kahunas? to include the name of her business and its phone number on the sign (it’s (216) 351-6111). Not many racist trolls would take credit for something this truly awful — and posted at a time when the United States is gripped by racial tensions in Ferguson, MO.
Oh, and by the way, it’s not the first time Sysack has been responsible for a racist billboard. Back in 2002, Sysack produced a billboard showing MLK with his arm around Osama Bin Laden. Obviously Sysack wasn’t a fan of the Martin Luther King holiday and wanted to illustrate her objections by depicting the civil rights leader with the world’s most-wanted terrorist at the time. What happened to this sign? Someone burned it to the ground.
Whether it’s Iraq, Gaza, Ferguson, Ukraine, the Ebola outbreak… CONTINUE READING