'Lynching' Halloween Cut-Outs Are Hate Crime: Brooklyn Activists

CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — Racial justice activists vowed Thursday to put a Bed-Stuy nonprofit out of business after one of its co-founders put up Halloween decorations that resembled lynchings in her home across from an elementary school.

Neighbors, activists and elected officials gathered outside Dany Rose's Waverly Avenue home for a rally Thursday denouncing the cut-outs of brown bodies hanging from nooses that she had put in the windows just days earlier.

Rose, who is a co-owner of ArtShack in Bed-Stuy, said the decorations were meant to be dolls inspired by a horror movie and took them down and apologized after parents from P.S. 11 across the street got in touch with her.

But Thursday's protesters still promised to boycott, start petitions and look into cutting off the funding for Rose's organization. They demanded that the city's Commission on Human Rights investigate the "hate crime."

"We're here today to express through words our outrage, but not to the exclusion of promising action," said Rev. Kirsten John Foy, founder of the Arc of Justice organization. "ArtShack has got to go. You have no place in our community espousing racism and demeaning, and demagoguing and violently treating our children."

(Anna Quinn/Patch.)

Foy said the offensive decorations were especially personal given that his two children attend first and third grade at the school across the street.

The display got the attention of activists and elected officials after a photo of it posted by a P.S. 11 parent went viral online. The photo has since been shared 2,000 times.

Rose has since reached out to the parent who posted the photo to apologize and put out two statements through ArtShack.

She said the decorations were inspired by the horror movie "Annabelle," which tells the story of a demonic porcelain doll tormenting a family, and did not intend to hurt her neighbors, in a letter she shared with Patch.

"I understand that ignorance is no excuse and apologies are not enough, but nonetheless I want to apologize sincerely to my neighbors and community," Rose wrote.

But protesters, including City Council Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo, said Thursday that the community is passed accepting apologies.

One Arc of Justice activist, the Vice President Rev. Kevin McCall, said he has seen "Annabelle" and its sequel twice and argued that "it doesn't show no noose, it doesn't show no black person, so what Annabelle movie did she see?"

Cumbo likened the decorations to other offensive displays the activists have had to protest, including a Prada "blackface" display that showed up at a SoHo store last year.

She read the history of 3,346 lynchings in the United States at the rally to give context to the "painful history" the decorations brought up.

"We are not accepting apologies, we're not accepting 'I'm sorrys,' we're not accepting 'I didn't know any better,'" Cumbo said. "You're not going to continue to disrespect my community with stories of 'I didn't know any better' — you better learn to know better."

(Anna Quinn/Patch).

Update: Friday morning after the rally, ArtShack announced that Dany Rose had resigned as co-director of the organization. "Please know that our team is working hard on a path toward accountability, beginning with a community meeting," the group said in a Facebook post.

"We do not tolerate racism. We stand for inclusivity, love, acceptance and tolerance for all. We believe in a restorative process that accounts for both harm and forgiveness," another post continued.