Speaking of Bull...

This facepalm comes to you courtesy of my home state.  In Sedalia, Missouri the state fair is going on.  Though I'm not sure how it works in civilized parts of the country, it's still a fairly big deal here, with crowds and family traditions planned around the event.  And now, I'll always have a dollop of shame when thinking of the midway and the families smiling and laughing.

During the rodeo show, a clown with an Obama mask (yeah, it's just as racist as you just thought) went out in the crowd while the announcer and others cheered for him to get hit by the bull.  It wasn't "just in fun" and it wasn't a single errant comment that caused the problem.

“They mentioned the president’s name, I don’t know, 100 times. It was sickening,” Beam said. “It was feeling like some kind of Klan rally you’d see on TV.”

On Sunday evening, Kari Mergen, Missouri State Fair spokeswoman, told the News-Leader that the Mark Ficken, president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, was an announcer at the rodeo. It was unclear whether Ficken’s voice was the one heard on the video.

In a statement sent by Mergen, the fair denounced the incident.

“The performance by one of the rodeo clowns at Saturday’s event was inappropriate and disrespectful, and does not reflect the opinions or standards of the Missouri State Fair. We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday’s rodeo badly missed that mark,” the statement reads.

Glad to hear that the guy who said it can't be bothered to apologze.  I don't know Kari Mergen personally, but she deserves a medal for even giving a modest attempt at burying this turd of an event.  Claire McCaskill expressed her displeasure, and Jay Nixon had nothing nice to say.

This was nothing more than a blackface routine with a recognizable black face.  Missouri has a long, racist history and at times like this I wonder if we will ever climb out of the pit we've dug for ourselves as a state. It is so difficult to raise free-thinking and intelligent kids in a region where you can't be safe from hate... even at a time-honored  event like the state fair.