The father of a Baraboo High School graduate blocked his daughter from shaking the hand of the Black superintendent as she graduated, video of the incident shows.

The school district, which has had repeated problems with racism and antisemitism, held its graduation Friday. The father was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, Wisconsin News reported.

The father, who has been identified as 49-year-old Matt Eddy, jumped on stage, grabbed the superintendent and began dragging him to the back of the stage.

  • barsquid@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    That sounds like more of an assault than a disorderly conduct.

    I cannot imagine being so racist that I would leap on stage to stop a handshake. I also have to wonder at the misogyny, like does he think a handshake will defile his daughter? Must be dozens of delusional ideas just bouncing around in a racist’s head like DVD logos.

    • TurtleJoe@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That sounds like more of an assault than a disorderly conduct.

      This is one of those situations where I like to imagine what would have happened if the guy did that to a cop. Likely a litany of charges, including assaulting an officer, and would have had the shit beaten out of him.

      • j4k3@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        And if the father was black and it was a white cop on stage, the father would be dead.

      • PirateJesus@lemmy.today
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        5 months ago

        would have had the shit beaten out of him.

        It depends on how situation aware the cops are about all the cameras and witnesses. In an ideal case, they’d realize there are a lot of voting community members around them who made the time to attend a ceremony. Not a situation where people will just turn up the volume on their television sets.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        They’d have shot him. They would have escalated the fight and then shot him if they were losing.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    blocking black superintendent from shaking daughter’s hand

    is something of an understated headline. Looks like he straight up assaulted the superintendent.

  • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Local station News 3 claimed that social media comments say that the father was angry at the way the district handled bullying issues related to his daughter.

    I don’t buy that. She seems surprised and embarrassed. And I would think you would have an issue with the principal rather than the superintendent.

    Also, whose social media comments? His? Random people?

    • GroundedGator@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Not saying it’s justified to bully anyone, but maybe the fruit has rotted with the tree.

      A more hopeful part of me believes that she’s been saddled with a toxic family and has suffered for it. And now she’ll be able to escape and be free.

      • SeaJ@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        I tend to think the latter considering she at least had the social intelligence to just GTFO of there after putting her hand on her forehead in embarrassment.

  • 🔰Hurling⚜️Durling🔱@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    That poor kid, I trully feel for her since this day was a huge deal and her Racist dad just permanently stained it for her, on top of the embarrassment that girl had with her peers.

  • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I call bullshit on the claim it’s “because of how bullying cases were handled”. Looks pretty straightforward, racist AF to me.

    And even if that were true, or more likely he was a racist dickhead, either way: if he had such a big problem, if he wanted to protest…you don’t have to publicly cross the stage at graduation. Not that he’s smart enough to reason this out. But crossing the stage is a privilege, it is public recognition, it is a community event. The graduate need not be compelled to participate; she could have received her diploma in the mail (like most do, anyway) & stayed home.

    Although judging by the girl’s reaction, her father was acting off-the-cuff, alone, and without her knowledge. I’m hoping that’s the case. Racism is fucking stupid.

    • Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      All he had to do is wait it out one more night and they would never have to see the scary man again. Instead, he announced to the world what is going on in his head and there’s nothing good in there.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    5 months ago

    From a scientific standpoint I’d love to know what was going through the racist dad’s head in that moment

    • UnpluggedFridge@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      From someone who grew up with a racist father, it was likely a juxtaposition of the handshake with stereotypes of hypersexuality and uncleanliness among black men mixed with sexist ideals of young women and their purity.

      • calamity_joe@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        This is my opinion too. I dont have racist parents (anymore than anyone can be said to have some degree of inherent racism we try hard to be mindful of and eliminate as we become more aware), but I did grow up around a lot of racists. I was always surprised that people I knew, even ones who had black friends and were otherwise fine towards other races, would get really weird about a white woman and a black man having some sexual relationship.

        Then the guns came out and it was all kinds of horrific slurs towards the black man and the white woman both. I specifically remember the common understanding for these people was that a white woman was “ruined” beyond repair after being with a black man. Even when I was young, it just screams of an outrageous level of insecurity

    • adaveinthelife@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      His wife probably made a comment about how handsome the SI is, and he spiraled inside his tiny head.