A University of Wisconsin-Madison fan showed off their team pride in a rather interesting way; a noose tied around the neck of a President Obama mask.
The photo was taken Saturday during the University of Wisconsin vs. Nebraska game and posted to Twitter.
At the @UWBadgers game and there is a man with a mask of President Obama and a noose. This is racism, why was this allowed into the stadium? pic.twitter.com/zKEqhdDYny
— 😏 (@woahohkatie) October 29, 2016
A short time later, the school responded to the tweet requesting which section this took place. The man was asked to remove his mask and complied, then allowed to watch the remainder of the game.
The school released this statement the same day.
Then on Sunday, the University’s Chancellor penned a more in-depth message to the community about the incident that “evoked images of lynchings of African-Americans from this country’s past.” In the message, she noted that because the individual wearing the mask was not sitting in the student section there was no indication of whether he was affiliated with the school.
“Some have asked why the individual was not ejected. Once the noose was removed, the decision was made that the remainder of the costume fell within the stadium’s costume policies,” UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said in the statement. “This was consistent with our handling of other instances of individuals wearing clothing containing offensive language.”
While also mentioning an upcoming diversity forum, Blank went on to write, “As offensive as this costume was, I believe our university must resist the desire to outlaw forms of speech and political dissent with which we disagree.”
