Anti-Obama July 4 parade float accused of being racist

A Norfolk, Nebraska, parade float depicting the Obama presidential library as an outhouse has come under fire for its allegedly racist undertone. Carried on the back of a flatbed truck in the town's Independence Day parade, the float showed a dummy in overalls standing outside the makeshift latrine.

The state Democratic Party called the float one of the "worst shows of racism and disrespect for the presidency that Nebraska has ever seen." Yet the float nonetheless received some of the day's heartiest cheers, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. And organizers defended the float, with parade committee member Rick Konopasek likening it to a political cartoon.

"We don't feel its right to tell someone what they can and can't express," he said. "This was political satire. If we start saying no to certain floats, we might as well not have a parade at all."

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