A Knoxville social worker named Elisabeth Spencer Pitts has publicly called on the city to take down white-sheet ghost decorations hanging from trees in downtown Market Square, arguing that the standard Halloween decor resembles a "white supremacist lynching."
The ghosts form part of Knoxville's official "Wicked Cool Halloween" decorations in the popular downtown square.
Independent journalist Andy Ngo highlighted her Facebook posts and images of the displays, noting that the last documented lynching in the United States occurred 45 years ago.
A leftist social worker in Knoxville, Tenn. named Elisabeth Spencer Pitts is pressuring the city council to take down its Halloween ghost decorations because she believes it looks like a white supremacist lynching.
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 28, 2026
The last documented American lynching was 45 years ago, but… pic.twitter.com/05sHJpus3W
In a Facebook post complaining about the decorations, Pitts wrote:
Maybe I'm sensitive and possessed of a very flighty and prolific imagination, but this sh-t just ain't copacetic in my humble opinion. The governance and daily operations of and by the Knoxville City Government are, by the most charitable estimations (I guess), simply tone deaf and incompetent- and in many cases just absolutely brutal in purpose and mechanism- but I feel like this Halloween aesthetic is exceptionally off the mark even for them. JFC can we just NOT hang anthropomorphic figures in trees in a downtown southern city right now?
While some commenters agreed with her, many also pointed out the absurdity of her complaint.
A man named JeMiale McKinney responded to her post, writing, "As a black dude, literally nah fam. Last documented lynching in the country was 1981. Last in Tennessee was 1944. Last documented gun homicide I could find in Knoxville was 2026 on Magnolia. The ghosts are white. The wires aren't wrapped around their neck. Stuff like this paints Black people as perpetual victims who need shielding from any vague thing."
I had to go look! The comment section doesn’t disappoint!!
— Sindy Kiehl (@SindyKiehl) October 29, 2026
(God bless, JeMaile)https://t.co/oV0qxKrJ5r pic.twitter.com/IqaQO5iEKG
Pitts, listed in public records as a case manager/care coordinator in Knoxville, has also posted about transgender issues, including a March message wishing "Happy Trans Day of Visibility" and criticizing "transphobes."
The ghosts were still up as of Halloween morning.
Source link
