Westmoreland, PA, had its annual Thanksgiving Parade and made national news for all the wrong reasons. One of the floats featured a utility vehicle plastered with Trump decals, with fake Secret Service agents, U.S. flags, and a mounted rifle on top. Following behind was a woman dressed as Kamala Harris, chained to the vehicle like a slave.
The parade is organized by the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department, which has hosted the event without incident for over 70 years in the small city outside Pittsburgh. The local NAACP chapter had an immediate reaction.
“In allowing this display, the organizers have sent a troubling message that demeans and dehumanizes Black and Brown individuals," said Daylan Davis. This kind of imagery reinforces a dangerous narrative, implicitly suggesting that Black individuals belong in chains. Such a display has no place in our society today or any community that values inclusivity, respect, and human dignity.”
The firefighters responded with a statement of their own.
“We, the members of the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department, want to take a moment to sincerely apologize for allowing the offensive participants to take part in the Mount Pleasant Annual Halloween Parade last evening," wrote Mount Pleasant VFD officials. We do not share in the values represented by those participants, and we understand how it may have hurt or offended members of our community. We’re proud to have sponsored this parade for over 70 years and its goal has always been to support our community’s children. We are committed to learning from this experience and ensuring that our future events celebrate the diversity and spirit of our community in a positive way.
The annual Halloween Parade is a first come, first serve event and we have traditionally only provided safety & traffic control. We will be reviewing our planning processes to prevent a situation like this from happening again. Thank you for your understanding and support as we work to make our events more welcoming for everyone.”
The parade was promoted as open to everyone with no registration needed. The only requirement seemed to be that they line up an hour early at the parade's starting point. That’s a policy they might want to look at in the future. Still, I have to believe some things would have disqualified a participant. What if a vehicle was leaking fuel or was an obvious fire hazard in another way? Did anyone check to see if the mounted assault rifle was loaded? Suppose the sniper on the float began shooting into the crowd of children. Being overtly racist did nothing to trigger a response.
The participants in the float, however misguided, were just a few people and didn’t necessarily reflect the views of the campaign. I’m more concerned about the people defending these actions without regard to the example this sets for the children present. Then again, maybe the example was the point. The participants in the float will likely be named and shamed and we may never hear from them again. I worry about those on the Internet who are oblivious to the racism, in some cases cheering it on. Here are some examples:
“Give us a break. The left has been demonizing and falsely accusing Trump and his supporters of everything under the sun since 2016. Kamala Harris is a political figure. People have the right to pick on her in the same manner. If she can’t take the heat, then she’s in the wrong race. I don’t see any difference in this display than leftists and even the Harris campaign calling Trump Hitler, or Biden calling all Trump supporters garbage. CBS needs to grow up and stop slapping the racist theme on anything they don’t like. Americans have outgrown the propaganda.”
Screaming about racism is a hallmark of the left when they have nothing to bring to the table, and that seems to happen almost daily.
Not racist — Would have done the same thing regardless of Harris’s race — Only the real racists think that was racist.
She is NOT black!
Woke1h
I mean everything the left doesn’t agree with is racist, it’s been like that since 2016. Isn’t that the democrat mantra?
The right no longer cares when the left screams racist. Everything the left disagrees with is racist. You have shouted it so long and so loud for everything that does not agree with your ideology that it is just a constant screed.
Which race, by the way? She has claimed several…
How can you tell what race you are being racist about? She changes her race and accent so many times you don’t know what she is.
I take small consolation that the people who put on this racist display were unable to find a Black woman to pretend to be Kamala in chains. I’m not shocked at the Internet comments, but it is worrisome that people who once would hide their handles in anonymity are now proudly displaying their names.
This post originally appeared on Substack and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Substack. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.