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Sports

Wisconsin Fans' Trump-Lynching-Obama Costumes Are Just About Racist As it Gets

You just need to thumb back less than 50 years through your American history books to find lynching as a horrifyingly common practice.

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

As if there was no other possible way to make this election cycle drag up more horrors from our nation's past, a pair of utterly deplorable (yeah, I went there) shitheads at the Wisconsin-Nebraska game yesterday decided to dress as Trump holding a noose around Obama (and Hillary)'s neck.

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The fans were asked by stadium security to alter their costumes by removing the noose.

It APPEARS the men were first asked to removed the Obama mask then asked to leave. This was their exit… pic.twitter.com/Xv1UxMOfaW
— (@woahohkatie) October 30, 2016

Wisconsin issued a statement claiming that they didn't remove the fans from the game due to a rightful allowance of free speech:

During the first half of this evening's Wisconsin football game against Nebraska, UW officials were made aware that an individual in the seating bowl had donned a highly insensitive and offensive costume. UW Athletics' guest services staff were dispatched to the individual's seating area where they asked him to remove the offensive components of the costume. He complied.

UW Athletics' policy regarding admission into the stadium with a costume stipulates that no one may be wearing a mask upon entering the facility. Once inside, it is permissible to wear a mask. The costume, while repugnant AND COUNTER TO THE VALUES OF THE UNIVERSITY AND ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT, was an exercise of the individual's right to free speech. The university also exercised its rights by asking the individual to remove the offensive parts of the costume.

UW-Madison is dedicated to promoting a campus environment where all people feel valued, safe and able to thrive. To that end, the university continues to encourage all of our community members to engage in discussion over vital issues in ways that promote greater understanding and respect for all persons.

It is so impossibly difficult to rationalize how someone could find this remotely close to humor, wit, or an original idea. It's crass; it's violent; it speaks to some of the most unspeakable horrors of racism seen in any nation. You just need to thumb back less than 50 years through your American history books to find lynching as a common practice. According to the NAACP, over 3,446 black people were lynched between 1882 and 1968, accounting for 72.7 percent of all recorded lynchings at the time. And that's likely a gross underestimate.

Regardless of how you think the polls are swinging right now, America is going to need to stare itself down long and hard to rectify their naked hatreds after this election. And you wonder why we're taking a knee.