Conservative radio host Erick Erickson received a rude awakening after buying a wooden cross from local teens as part of a fundraiser, placing it in his front yard and decorating it with Christmas lights.
A slew of commentators on social media accused him Sunday of placing a “burning cross” in his yard, comparing it to the symbol of the Ku Klux Klan.
“Erick Erickson with a burning cross in his yard is the only thing about this week that doesn’t seem surprising,” tweeted Bill Palmer, who runs the left-wing political blog Palmer Report.
Other comments included “quit burning crosses on people’s lawns,” “you just kkk’d your front lawn,” “Did a black family live at that house, Erick?” and “2020 and we’re still burning crosses? Do better America.”
“You really didn’t think this through, did you?” asked Newsweek White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg.
Newsweek ran a story Sunday on the yard decoration with the headline, “Conservative host Erick Erickson criticized for placing ’burning cross’ in front yard,” which was later updated to, “Conservative host Erick Erickson accused of racial insensitivity for putting lights on cross in his yard.”
His defenders swung back by arguing that crosses festooned with lights are popular Christmas decorations, while Mr. Erickson, an evangelical Christian, pointed out that this is Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.
Does he know about, like, the whole KKK?
— Rae Sanni (@raesanni) April 5, 2020
Did a Google search and found these terrible images of burning crosses. cc @EWErickson pic.twitter.com/FaCK0iY2Qn
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) April 5, 2020
Where I Become the Story https://t.co/FLA5jz7AeC pic.twitter.com/1LmUehqQnd
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) April 6, 2020
Mr. Erickson said he bought the cross for $20 from a pair of teen brothers who were raising money to buy snacks for nurses and doctors at a local hospital, and that several of his neighbors in Georgia also decorated their crosses with lights.
“We’re in a global pandemic and can’t go to church. I thought it was a nice thought,” Mr. Erickson said. “But the trolls have not only decided it is not a nice thought, but have overrun my social media feed to accuse me of being in the KKK.”
He added that his “only regret here is that two teenagers have done a wonderful thing and their actions are overshadowed by a bunch of malicious internet trolls.”
The back-and-forth continued Monday. On the left, Wonkette weighed in with a post headlined, “Erick Erickson Promotes Burning Cross, Should Definitely Keep Neighbors Away,” while on the right, PJ Media’s Tyler O’Neil said that perhaps Mr. Erickson “should have thought more about the potential backlash, but his intentions in posting the image were clear.”
“A closer inspection of the picture shows indeed that it is a cross with Christmas lights — not a KKK symbol,” Mr. O’Neil said. “The rush to compare Erickson’s tweet to a burning cross arguably reveals more about the liberals attacking this conservative radio host than about him or about the cross itself.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Erickson, who runs the Resurgent website, said that he plans to add more lights “to make the cross shine brighter,” and that he would “turn the lights off on Good Friday, the day the world went dark, and pray for the trolls in the meantime.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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