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Fans Bring Noose-Wearing Obama Mask To Football Game, Sparking Outrage

Fans Bring Noose-Wearing Obama Mask To Football Game, Sparking Outrage
15 October 2016: Wisconsin Badger students in section O put their hands in in the shape of an O before the snap of a ball as the 2nd ranked Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the 8th ranked Wisconsin Badgers (30-23) in overtime at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, WI. (Photo by Dan Sanger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
15 October 2016: Wisconsin Badger students in section O put their hands in in the shape of an O before the snap of a ball as the 2nd ranked Ohio State Buckeyes defeat the 8th ranked Wisconsin Badgers (30-23) in overtime at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, WI. (Photo by Dan Sanger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Talk about going out of bounds. A pair of football fans showed up to a University of Wisconsin game Saturday with a Barack Obama mask ― and a noose wrapped around its neck.

The person in the Obama mask wore a black and white jailhouse suit. (They later swapped the mask of the president for one of Hillary Clinton mask.) Their companion wore a mask of Donald Trump.

A bystander tweeted a photo of the offensive costume with the words “This is racism, why was this allowed into the stadium?”

According to the university, the fan carrying the noose was asked “to remove the offensive parts” of the costume after it was reported to guest services. But because the fans were exercising their right to free speech, they were not asked to leave.

“The costume, while repugnant and counter to the values of the university and Athletic Department, was an exercise of the individual’s right to free speech,” the university said in a statement.

The out-of-touch characters were later filmed appearing to exit the stands wearing Trump and Clinton masks.

Many on Twitter were outraged, calling the display a form of hate speech.

Twitter user @woahohkatie, who appeared to be the first to post the photo, later wrote that she and a friend since received “hate tweets” for standing up against the obscene display. Some of the tweets, she wrote, included “people encouraging us to kill ourselves.”

“The internet is a wild and violent place,” she concluded.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.