NC Parking lot bans Obama supporters

RawStory, David Edwards and Andrew McLemore

If your fender says Change, don't park here.

A parking lot owner in Gibsonville, NC, decided supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are no longer welcome to use his property, WFMY's Julia Bagg reported.

Lot owner Tim Henderson posted two identical signs that warned: 'no parking' for Obama supporters or people with Obama bumper stickers."

"I don't expect to go after anybody with a baseball bat," Henderson said. "I would grin at them and laugh and ask them if they could read English."

State workers who have used the parking lot for years complained that the new rule infringed on their rights. Some had Obama/Biden stickers in their windows.

"It's telling me because I have a sticker or I believe in something, I'm not allowed to park here and this is where I park for work, I have to park here," said Dave Dicke, an Obama supporter.

Henderson initially said the signs would stay up through the November election.

After a local news station reported the story, Mayor Lenny Williams made an agreement with Henderson for the removal of the signs.

"If he said Obama folks could park here, but McCain [supporters] couldn't, I wouldn't like that either," Mayor Williams said.

But an anti-Obama parking lot is not the only example of strong prejudice against the Democratic candidate.

Several stories in recent weeks have provoked public outrage about racism in the election.

Vendors at a Family Values Summit in September sold boxes of "Obama Waffles" with packaging that included a caricature of the senator in a turban and grinning with fat lips and bulging eyes.

The vendors were eventually asked to leave by the event organizers once media reported on the incident.

Last week, a Florida teacher faced disciplinary action after calling Obama a "nigger" to his 7th grade class.

This video is from WFMY News 2, broadcast October 10, 2008.