The owner of a political display that has been criticized as racist and threatening has added what appears to be an effigy of President Barack Obama to the exhibit at the east Morgan Hill residence.
Last week, the display on Foothill Avenue near the intersection of Tennant Avenue depicted two watermelons on a chair nailed to a plywood platform atop a white fence. A rope tied in the shape of a noose hung from the chair, and a clear piece of glass or plastic facing the chair was scribbled with the message, “Go back to Kenya you idiot.”
On Tuesday morning, an addition to the display showed a likeness of a person sitting in the chair, with a coconut as the person’s head sitting atop a metal post, and a robe fashioned from a sheet hanging on a coat hanger. On the coconut is a crudely drawn face with eyes, teeth and a mouth with a cigarette placed where the mouth is. On the sides of the coconut are attached two large cutout shapes resembling oversized ears.
The figure is facing the clear piece of glass, which presumably resembles a teleprompter and the figure is likely supposed to appear to be reading from the prop.
A few feet from the display, also attached to the top of the fence, remains a political sign showing support for Republican candidate Mitt Romney for president.
An anonymous caller to the Times alerted the newspaper about the addition of the effigy on the display Monday.
The display last week ignited widespread Internet commentary and criticism from local political representatives and spokespeople.
The resident of the home behind the fence was not home Tuesday morning, and numerous attempts to contact the resident have gone unanswered.
