{"id":3373,"date":"2017-07-04T20:29:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T00:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=3373"},"modified":"2017-11-26T21:43:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T02:43:48","slug":"beverly-farms-horribles-parade-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2017\/07\/04\/beverly-farms-horribles-parade-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"Beverly Farms’ Satirical Horribles Parade Responds To Accusations Of Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Floats in the Beverly Farms Horribles Parade–the annual satirical Independence Day parade in the conservative and wealthy white enclave in Beverly, Massachusetts–this morning defiantly responded to accusations that the event is racist, homophobic and just plain mean. “Over 100 years of tradition,” read the back of one float, “quit your bitching.”<\/p>\n

Many signs positioned criticisms of the parade as threats to free speech. And several floats directly attacked Beverly resident Norrie Gall, who has prominently criticized the parade after seeing my photos of the 2016 event online last year. Her efforts have helped prompt one local bank to back out of sponsoring the event. Signs (in the parade’s traditional rhyming) said: “Think Twice before you write a story Norrie,” “Know your role and shut your hole,” “We know Norris’s out tramping instead of camping,” and “You call us a Klan because you’re not allowed on our sand.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The “#Gorilla Lives Matter” float in the 2016 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Floats also doubled down on the racist statements on floats last year that referenced\u00a0the gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo (\u201c#Gorilla Lives Matter,\u201d read one float accompanied by a person in a gorilla suit) or depicted Mexicans as trying to smuggle drugs past Donald Trump’s proposed border wall. “You got bent out of shape about an ape, give it a break for goodness sake!” read a sign on one of\u00a0the anti-Gall floats. Another sign mocked a publication that reported Gall’s criticisms<\/a>: “Boston Magazine a cog in the Clinton crime machine.”<\/p>\n

One float mocked Trump. But, perhaps notably, there was little visible support for the current U.S. president\u00a0seen in this year’s floats.<\/p>\n

(All photos copyright 2017 Greg Cook.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Norrie<\/a>
Norrie Gall, who has criticized the Beverly Farms Horribles Parade, was mocked by several 2017 floats. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade: “Puppet Master Putin Is Pulling Trump’s Strings \/ Now We Know Who Is King.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade: “Losers of the Looney Left” accompanied by a man dressed as “Elizabeth Warren” in a feathered headdress. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade float connects Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade: “In case of restored freedom Break Glass,” “Make A-horribles great again.” (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Is<\/a>
Is that Uncle Sam giving the finger in a 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade float saying “Defend Free Speech \/ Support This Parade”? (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\""Coal<\/a>
“Coal ingredients … mmm good.” The 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Trump<\/a>
Trump as Putin’s puppet in the 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The 2017 Beverly Farms Horribles Parade. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Floats in the Beverly Farms Horribles Parade–the annual satirical Independence Day parade in the conservative and wealthy white enclave in Beverly, Massachusetts–this morning defiantly responded to accusations that the event is racist, homophobic and just plain mean. “Over 100 years of tradition,” read the back of one float, “quit your bitching.” Many signs positioned criticisms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,114,108,102,119],"tags":[40,39,14,87,88],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3373"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3943,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3373\/revisions\/3943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}