One particular float at an Independence Day celebration in Norfolk, Neb., has created quite the controversy with its depiction of the “Obama Presidential Library” as an outhouse, the Omaha World-Herald reports.
According to the report, the float was part of the city’s annual Independence Day parade, but there were no markers identifying who sponsored the float, which also featured a zombielike figure dressed in overalls in front of the “library.”
One paradegoer, Liz Guthrie, who took a widely circulated photo of the float, said that she could hear laughter and clapping as the float passed.
The World-Herald reported receiving emails from people offended by the float, with one person calling it “disrespectful.” According to the news site, the Nebraska Democratic Party also called it one of “the worst shows of racism and disrespect for the office of the presidency that Nebraska has ever seen.”
Parade committee member Rick Konopasek told the Lincoln Journal-Star that the float was no more controversial than a political cartoon, according to the World-Herald, adding that the float was the most popular and received an honorable mention from the panel of judges.
Read more at the Omaha World-Herald.