Sections

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Sign in

Home

Share

0

Social Issues

Blackface incident at Post cartoonist’s 2018 Halloween party resurfaces amid protests

By

Marc Fisher and

Sydney Trent

June 17, 2020 at 3:05 PM EDT

Every year, Tom Toles’s Halloween party draws an eclectic mix — journalists and political types from Washington’s power elite, but also artists and musicians, everyone from retirees to college kids, jammed into small rooms and sprawled across the backyard, dancing and gossiping, checking out the crowd to see who has the most inventive and outrageous costumes.

At the 2018 party at the home of The Washington Post’s editorial cartoonist, in addition to several Ruth Bader Ginsburgs, someone dressed as the “Mueller Witch Hunt” and Post columnist Dana Milbank came as just-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, complete with a beer-dispensing device on his head. A guest named Lexie Gruber wore a scary “Beetlejuice” get-up and called herself “dead.”

A middle-aged white woman named Sue Schafer wore a conservative business suit and a name tag that said, “Hello, My Name is Megyn Kelly.” Her face was almost entirely blackened with makeup. Kelly, then an NBC morning show host, had just that week caused a stir by defending the use of blackface by white people: “When I was a kid, that was okay, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.”

Megyn Kelly asked ‘what is racist’ about blackface on Halloween. Plenty of people had answers.

So just before heading over to the party, Schafer, a graphic designer and friend of Toles, decided to dress as Kelly in blackface to mock her, she said.

Some of the approximately 100 guests at the home of the cartoonist in the District’s American University Park neighborhood said they didn’t notice the blackface. Some noticed it and said nothing. A few people walked up to Schafer, who was then 54, and challenged her about her costume. Gruber, who is of Puerto Rican descent, and her friend Lyric Prince, who is African American, confronted Schafer directly.

“You understand how offensive that could be to a person of color?” Gruber said, according to two witnesses.

“I’m Megyn Kelly — it’s funny!” Schafer replied, the witnesses said.

Nearly two years later, the incident, which has bothered some people ever since but which many guests remember only barely or not at all, has resurfaced in the nationwide reckoning over race after George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was killed when a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Many protesters have called on white Americans to reassess their own actions or inactions when confronting violent and everyday racism alike.

Gruber felt compelled to revive the 2018 incident. Last week, she emailed Toles, whom she has never met.

“In 2018, I attended a Halloween party at your home,” she wrote. “I understand that you are not responsible for the behavior of your guests, but at the party, a woman was in Blackface. She harassed me and my friend — the only two women of color — and it was clear she made her ‘costume’ with racist intent.”

Gruber, a 27-year-old management consultant, told Toles that the incident had “weighed heavily on my heart — it was abhorrent and egregious.” She asked him to help her identify the woman.

New York Times editorial page editor resigns after uproar over Tom Cotton op-ed

“After the killing of George Floyd and the protests, I began reflecting more on this incident,” Gruber said in an email seeking Post coverage of the incident.

“I wanted to know who this woman is. . . . What impact does she have on society? I think this is an important story — that a party full of prominent people in Washington welcomed a person in blackface, danced and drank with her, and watched in silence as she harassed two young women of color.”

Prince, 36, a science writer, art critic and artist, wants Schafer to explain publicly why she did what she did. “I don’t want an apology because that time has long passed,” she said. And she wants Toles to make it clear publicly “that what [Schafer] did was wrong and that . . . that’s not the kind of person that he knows to be a good person.” Perhaps most of all, she said, “I want people who read this story to say to themselves, ‘I cannot excuse my friend’s bad behavior because it does reflect on me if I say nothing.’ ”

Looking back, some guests at the party say they wish they had confronted Schafer more aggressively. Others say that she has already paid a price and that her embarrassment and regret were evident when she left the party in tears.

“I wish I’d have been the one to call her out,” said Philippa Hughes, a Washington arts entrepreneur who attended the party. Hughes, who is Asian American, is friendly with both Gruber and Schafer. “I did go up to Sue and say, ‘What the hell?’ But it took Lexie yelling at her to make her leave.”

Despite her certainty that wearing blackface was wrong even as a satire aimed at Kelly’s embrace of a racist gesture, Hughes is torn about whether the incident should be reopened.

“When it becomes public, it will be too much of a punishment,” she said. “It’s unfair to go back and attack some clueless woman, because she’s not a public person and she was punished then — by Lexie, by people who chastised her afterward, by Tom. But on the other hand, people do need to be held up as an example of the lines we’re going to draw about what’s acceptable behavior. Every single person at that party should have said something to her. There’s culpability all around.”

'No one would ever do that'

Toles, a 68-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner whose cartoons playfully and often bitingly express a decidedly liberal perspective, replied to Gruber’s email last week with “apologies for your experience at the party. A lot of people show up who I don’t know, and I don’t recognize the woman you’re inquiring about.”

Toles did not tell Gruber who had worn blackface.

But Toles did know Schafer, who had been to his parties before and is a friend of his family.

When he denied to Gruber that he recognized Schafer, Toles said in an interview Sunday night, “I meant that I didn’t recognize any bad intent. I didn’t feel it was my place to tell her who my other guest was when she had misinterpreted what the other guest intended” with her costume.

‘The terror of wearing both a press badge and black skin’

Toles said in the interview that he had confronted Schafer at the party and again later.

“She explained to me very quickly when she came in that she was trying to show what a jerk Megyn Kelly was,” Toles recalled. “I told her this was an ill-considered attempt at satire. She went on and on about what a horror it was to find something to use [as] blackface. She told me that in the cab on the way over, with a black cabdriver, he was upset, and then she explained what her costume was and then he wasn’t upset.”

Later in the interview, Toles said he was not certain that he had told Schafer at the party what he thought of her costume. “I may have told her that wearing blackface wasn’t appropriate, but I’m not sure I did,” he said, “and maybe I should have. . . . I could have told her to leave. I didn’t and that’s on me. Maybe I should have.”

Toles’s boss, Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt, said: “Blackface is abhorrent, period. I know Tom feels the same way, I know he wishes he had made that clearer to the person who came to his party wearing an offensive costume, and I’m glad he has apologized.” The Post’s editorial and opinion pages are administered through a separate chain of command from the paper’s news operation, which is run by Executive Editor Martin Baron.

In addition to Toles and his wife, Gretchen, another couple, Steve Rochlin and Christina Sevilla, co-hosted the Halloween party. Rochlin, a consultant on environmental sustainability, said that when he saw Schafer, “my reaction was, ‘What the hell?’ I asked why she was in that costume and she explained she was being Megyn Kelly.”

Rochlin said he told Schafer, “ ‘Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s offensive.’ And I said, ‘I’d like you to wash that off or go.’ She looked stricken, almost starting to tear up. Shortly after I spoke to her, she left.”

Earlier that evening, as they got ready for the party, Gruber and Prince had talked about the Kelly controversy and about what might happen if someone showed up in blackface.

They agreed that “no one would ever do that,” Gruber recalled in an interview.

But about 15 minutes after Gruber got to the party, she saw Schafer in blackface in Toles’s backyard. “I thought there’s just no way,” Gruber recalled. “I had never seen someone in blackface before. . . . It was like, ‘Holy s---, this is for real.’ ”

Benjamin Ross, a video company executive who attended the party as a friend of Gruber, Prince and another woman, said: “We had a record-scratch kind of moment, like, is there a frigging woman in blackface here?”

Gruber said that she and Prince were among only a handful of people of color at the party, and that most of the guests were considerably older. “Lyric and I felt very out of place,” she said.

She resolved to remain quiet about the woman: “I said, ‘I’m not going to say anything. I’m not going to ruin my night.’ ”

But then Gruber and her friends moved inside, got drinks and found themselves in the crowded living room. Prince, who is 6-foot-1, easily spotted the woman in blackface and pointed her out to Gruber. “What should we do?” Prince said.

She approached Schafer. Prince said she criticized Schafer’s makeup and told her, “You look horrible” — a way of “clapping back” at the blackface without addressing race head-on. Prince said in an interview that she was worried about being stereotyped as an “angry black woman,” worried that someone might call the police.

“I felt very unsafe talking to that person in the first place,” she said. “I was in an environment that, if it got heated, it would decidedly not be in my best interest.”

Another guest, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect friendships, said Schafer laughed after Prince said her makeup was “very ugly.”

Gruber also said that “the woman basically just started laughing.”

Schafer agreed that she laughed but said that it was a nervous laugh, a sign of extreme discomfort, and that it came “only when she told me that I was ugly and had wrinkles. She told me, ‘You think you’re so meta,’ and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t argue with her.”

Prince said of Schafer: “She looked very proud of herself, as if she was eliciting the kind of response that she had been hoping for.”

Prince viewed the blackface not as a satire aimed at Kelly, but rather as the opposite — as “a mockery of the outrage that Megyn Kelly produced. I find it very hard to believe that a white person does not know blackface is offensive. . . . That was the whole point of blackface to begin with — to mock black people.”

After Prince confronted Schafer, Gruber felt that she had to say something more direct.

Gruber asked Schafer whether she knew the history of blackface. “People have been murdered,” she recalled saying. She said she addressed Schafer “calmly and politely.” “They lynched people back in the day. There’s a painful history, and you should have some respect for that.”

Ross, who is white and was standing next to the women, said Gruber’s methodical explanation of the immorality of blackface “was beautiful, very respectful. And the woman just laughed at Lexie, very denigrating and flippant. She was not at all apologetic.”

Three witnesses described Gruber as “yelling” at Schafer, and Gruber said that “there wasn’t a single person in that party who didn’t hear me when I spoke.”

Gruber and her friends left the party immediately after the confrontation.

“This was a roomful of elite somebodies, and nobody wanted to touch this,” Ross said. “Nobody asked the woman to take off the costume. She wasn’t asked to leave. There was just silence. We felt like we had to leave.”

Gruber said she burst into tears as soon as she left Toles’s house.

Prince said, “I was pretty much just in a state of, like, shock.”

Schafer said that after the confrontation, she walked into the next room, “tried dancing and it just didn’t feel right, so I left.” She didn’t want a cabdriver to see her in blackface, so she had her cousin, who was at the party, drive her home.

'I'm deeply ashamed'

Schafer said she realized from the moment she entered Toles’s house that she’d made a terrible mistake.

The next day, she called Toles with “absolute remorse about the costume . . . extremely upset on reflection, and apologetic,” Toles said. “She did not come with the intent to confront, embarrass, ridicule or insult anybody.”

Toles said Sunday night that he feels “terrible that [Gruber] had such a bad experience. But I know [Schafer] felt so terrible that I don’t feel comfortable dragging [her] into a public situation that will misrepresent what she was doing.”

On her Facebook page, Schafer posts often about her opposition to President Trump and her support of immigrants, gun control, gay rights and anti-racism causes, including photos she took at marches and demonstrations she attended.

Schafer said she has spent many hours in therapy talking about “how carelessly I behaved. I’m deeply ashamed.”

Prince, too, has sought to work through the events of the evening with a therapist. “It was a humiliating experience for me,” she said. “I felt threatened and physically and emotionally exposed. . . . I felt powerless in a way that I never want to feel again.”

Schafer said she has learned in recent weeks, as protests have sparked new conversations about race, that racism “runs so much more deeply than I’d thought. I should know. I’m Jewish and my grandmother was a child slave for two years. I’ve hung my head for months. I hurt people in my carelessness.” She said she understands Gruber and Prince’s “pain and their consternation and their hurt. Clearly, I didn’t understand the history of blackface enough. I failed completely, but I’m not a malicious person.”

Schafer wrote an email to Tom and Gretchen Toles the day after the party, saying that she had “made a huge mistake. I’m very sorry I ruined the evening for some of your guests.”

She said she would like a chance to tell Gruber in person how sorry she is: “With this story, they’ll get the public humiliation they want, but it won’t foster any real dialogue between us. I wish they would talk to me. I made a mistake, and I understand now that when black people make a mistake, they can get killed.”

On Wednesday, after Schafer informed her employer, a government contractor, about the blackface incident and The Post’s forthcoming article, she was fired, she said.

'A hard line that you never cross'

Everyone involved in the incident agrees that the message blackface sends is unmistakable.

“Blackface is a hard line that you never cross,” said Hughes, the artist, who wrote a blog post about the incident a few days after the party without naming anyone. “I can super-intellectualize it to argue that what [Schafer] did was satire, it’s a commentary, but emotionally, I mean — I get the joke, but it’s not funny.”

Hughes said the incident “reminded me how tough and complex it is to talk about race, now more than ever. I try to have compassion for when people make mistakes like this, particularly because I know I will make mistakes. And these days, there’s so much calling out and canceling that I am worried that progressives are actually making it harder to achieve the policy goals we want. On the other hand, I think there are lines we need to draw, and wearing blackface in 2018 under any circumstances should probably be one of them.”

This week, Gruber and Toles traded emails. The exchange started out promisingly.

“I understand that you are not responsible for the behavior of your guests,” Gruber wrote.

Toles replied that he was “wrong” to deny that he knew who was wearing blackface. “I am sorry — for that, and more,” he wrote. He admitted that Schafer was “a friend.” He said he has realized that wearing blackface “was offensive in any context. I regret I did not see that more clearly at the time, and I apologize to you now unreservedly for that.”

But Toles did not give Gruber the woman’s name, and Gruber reacted sharply: “Hiding her name is a deliberate act of white privilege and cowardice, not friendship.”

In response, Toles offered to connect Gruber with Schafer, who he said wanted “a chance to explain and apologize to you herself.”

Gruber replied that she has “a hard time believing that you are genuine in remorse. . . . I do not feel comfortable reaching out to a woman who publicly harassed me and my friend — simply because we are not white. This happened in public — and so I want a public apology, not a private one.”

She told Toles that he was not innocent in the conflict: “As you well know,” Gruber wrote, “we are an extension of the company we keep.”

An earlier version of this story slightly mischaracterized Prince’s profession. She is a science writer, art critic and artist.

Why Did the Washington Post Get This Woman Fired?

By Josh Barro and Olivia Nuzzi

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/Shutterstock

Last week, when Sue Schafer learned that the Washington Post planned to publish a story about one of the dumbest things she had ever done, she had the same question that many readers would have about the resulting 3,000-word article, “Blackface Incident at Post Cartoonist’s 2018 Halloween Party Resurfaces Amid Protests”: Why is this newsworthy?

Readers within the Post newsroom were asking the question, too. “No one I’ve spoken with at the Post can figure out why we published this story,” said one prominent reporter at the paper. “We blew up this woman’s life for no reason.”

In 2018, Schafer attended a Halloween party at the home of Tom Toles, the Post’s Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist. The basis for Schafer’s costume was topical. NBC had recently fired Megyn Kelly after she said, on the air, that she didn’t understand why it was necessarily considered racist for people to wear blackface as part of a Halloween costume. Schafer, who is white, decided to lampoon the anchor by dressing as Megyn Kelly–in–blackface.

It wasn’t a good idea, and, predictably, it didn’t go over well. That night, Schafer was repeatedly confronted about the racially offensive costume — by the cabdriver who took her to Toles’s house; by the party’s co-host, Steve Rochlin, who told the Post he instructed her to “wash that off or go”; and by several guests at the party, one of whom would tip the newspaper to her actions nearly two years later, causing the incident to “resurface,” as the Post’s headline put it. The day after the party, Schafer called Toles and apologized for what she had worn.

This is a mortifying tale about one woman’s cluelessness, but why did it end up in a major national newspaper? The Post’s editorial standards declare that “fairness includes relevance.” The non-recent, non-criminal bad acts of non-public figures are not ordinarily considered news, and before June 17, Schafer was a graphic designer with no public profile and no apparent power or ambitions to obtain it. What was the point of publishing this story — at considerable length, accompanied by original photography from an acclaimed staff photographer, on the front page of the paper’s “Style” section — besides causing Schafer to lose her job?

The Post said Schafer’s transgression was news because it happened in front of Toles and somewhere possibly in the vicinity of columnist Dana Milbank.

“Employees of the Washington Post, including a prominent host, were involved in this incident, which impelled us to tell the story ourselves thoroughly and accurately while allowing all involved to have their say,” said Kris Coratti, a spokesperson for the paper. “The piece conveys with nuance and sensitivity the complex, emotionally fraught circumstances that unfolded at the party attended by media figures only two years ago where an individual in blackface was not told promptly to leave. America’s grappling with racism has entered a phase in which people who once felt they should keep quiet are now raising their voices in public. The story is a microcosm of what the country is going through right now.”

It’s not unusual for publications to report on themselves, though ordinarily they do so because they are already in the news. Proactive reporting creates significant concerns about conflicts of interest: If the Post shapes the narrative of a new story about itself, it may do so in a way that is designed to protect the paper’s interests. When politicians do this, reporters cynically refer to it as “getting out ahead of the story” — the idea being that new information has more impact on public perception than a clarification or correction or addition to already public information.

And if the supposed journalistic purpose of the article was to interrogate the actions of employees of the Post, it failed in a few ways.

The only Post employee the article demonstrates to have even had knowledge of the blackface costume is Toles. Milbank’s attendance and costume — Brett Kavanaugh with beer helmet — are noted in the article, but he’s not quoted, nor does the article say he was asked any questions, including whether he saw Schafer’s costume or objected to it. (Milbank tells New York he never saw anyone in blackface.) No other Post employees — in fact, no other “media figures” at all — are named in the article, though Coratti confirms there were additional Post employees in attendance. Who were they? Were they any more “involved in this incident” than Milbank was? Did they tell Schafer blackface is wrong? Who can say — Coratti said that by “involved,” she meant only that the employees attended the party, and no further details were reported in the Post.

Another problem with the theory that the Post saw the story as a necessary accounting of the behavior of its employees and other media figures is how the paper handled the story after publication. By our count, a total of four Post employees shared the article on Twitter shortly after its publication online on June 17. One of those employees characterized the story to New York as “obviously a mess” and admitted to not having read it in full before tweeting it. Neither of the article’s authors, Marc Fisher and Sydney Trent, has shared it on Twitter or Facebook, even though Fisher is active on both platforms, where he has posted every other article he wrote this month. (Fisher declined to speak on the record for this story. In response to a request for comment, Trent said, “I would refer you to our corporate response. I look forward to reading your story.”)

In the hours after publication, the story started to receive widespread criticism from journalists on social media on the grounds that it got its subject fired while lacking news value. (Readers had to get 85 percent of the way through the story to even learn that Schafer had lost her job when she told her employer the story would be running.) The article now has drawn over 2,000 web comments, which are overwhelmingly negative in nature. Yet aside from PR statements to outlets covering the Post’s coverage, the Post’s response to the criticism of this story has been silence. If this is a story with “nuance and sensitivity” that the Post felt “impelled” to run, why is a spirited defense of the Post’s journalism coming only from a non-journalist spokesperson for the paper? The answer we reached, after interviewing ten current Post journalists for this story, is that the paper’s staff generally does not consider the story to be defensible.

“My reaction, like everybody, was, What the hell? Why is this a story?” a feature writer at the Post told New York. “My second reaction was, Why is this a 3,000-word feature?” The feature writer added, “This was not drawn up by the ‘Style’ section.”

Employees at “Style” — the paper’s premiere location for long-form storytelling — were confused and displeased to see the piece running on their turf, two Post employees with knowledge of the situation said. Neither Fisher nor Trent works for the “Style” desk, though as newspapers have gotten increasingly focused on digital distribution, the walls between newspaper sections have become more porous.

While the piece failed as a journalistic investigation of the culture of Washington, D.C.’s “media figures,” it succeeded by a different metric: It ensured that Schafer bore the brunt of the criticism in the piece — for example, describing her insensitive interaction in the taxi en route to the party, an incident that occurred outside the presence of any media figures — with minimum organizational exposure to the Post. If it had leaked that the Post had neglected to pursue a story about blackface, or if the women who brought the tip to the Post had taken it to another outlet or simply tweeted about it, who knows what direction the story might have taken.

***

The story first arrived at the Post via management consultant Lexie Gruber, who, along with her friend Lyric Prince, an artist, had confronted Schafer that night in 2018. Immediately after the event, Prince posted about the exchange on Facebook. Another guest at the party, who also confronted Schafer, soon wrote about it on Medium. Meanwhile, Gruber tried and failed to identify Schafer, who, at the party, had worn a name tag that read “Hello, My Name Is Megyn Kelly.” Nineteen months later, on June 9, Gruber contacted Toles, whom she didn’t know, to ask for help identifying the woman. (Gruber had attended the party as a guest of a guest.) She attached a photo of Schafer from the party. Toles claimed, falsely, not to recognize her.

Without confirmation of the identity of the woman in blackface, Gruber reached out to Margaret Sullivan, the Post’s media columnist. (The story itself notes that Gruber sent an “email seeking Post coverage of the incident.”)

On June 14, Gruber sent Sullivan a message that “suggested the person wearing blackface might be a producer at the Post,” Sullivan told New York. Sullivan forwarded the message (which didn’t name a specific Post employee as the blackface suspect) to a couple of features-department editors, she said, “and pretty much lost track of it after that until it published.” But it didn’t take long for Post reporters to establish that it was not one of their colleagues who had worn blackface — Fisher was on the phone with Schafer by June 15.

Schafer told New York that when she asked Fisher — a reporter who, like Trent, has worked at the Post for more than 20 years — why the story was news, he replied, “We have to do it or they will go to another outlet.” Gruber, too, said that Trent asked if she was speaking to other media outlets.

It isn’t unusual for a reporter working on an as-yet-unreported story to ask sources or subjects if they are talking to other outlets; reporters are competitive and tend to value being first. And the Post denied that Fisher linked the paper’s interest in running the story to the likelihood that the news would otherwise get out elsewhere. Coratti, the Post spokesperson, said Fisher only told Schafer that the two party guests who brought the story to the Post might take it elsewhere in response to a question from Schafer about whether they might do so.

But a second person interviewed by Fisher said, “He expressed his misgivings about the story to me.” This person said that the impression Fisher left was that he had been told to do the story and that it was not his decision.

A third person interviewed by Fisher recounted a similar exchange. “He told me that from a personal perspective, he didn’t think this story necessarily warranted being out there, and that was his personal opinion,” this person said. “He chalked it up to other senior editors at the Post saying it has to go, and he claimed it was out of his hands even though he wrote it.” (“Our editors don’t ‘force’ people to write stories,” Coratti said.)

***

Serendipitously, when the blackface story ran in print on June 18, it was positioned next to Sullivan’s media column, which was headlined “Bad News Judgment and the Lessons I Learned.” In a photo accompanying the piece in print and online — shot by Michael S. Williamson, who has been a Post staff photographer since 1993 — Gruber and Prince pose in front of a statue of Joan of Arc in Malcolm X Park in Washington. But on June 22, five days after the story’s publication online, and four days after the image was circulated in print, it was removed from the Post’s website without a replacement image or an editor’s note explaining the decision.

“We took it down once we learned that physical threats had been made — we have taken similar measures for the same reason in other instances,” Coratti said.

The photo of Schafer in blackface remained in the body of the article until June 24, when it also disappeared. The Post did not respond to a question about why that picture was removed.

The Post’s editorial guidelines state that “as a matter of editorial policy, we do not grant take-down requests.” While the guidelines allow for the removal of “publicly available personal data” in cases of threats, they don’t suggest that the Post would unpublish a piece of Post editorial work product — a photograph — because it ran with a story that led to threats. Coratti did not answer a question about whether the Post had ever in a similar situation unpublished a news photograph by a staff photographer for which a subject willingly posed. Remarkably, the Post twice violated its own editorial policy in an apparent effort to appease Gruber and Prince: reporting on the incident even though the resulting story violated the Post’s editorial standard about relevance, then removing an editorial component of the story in violation of the Post’s editorial standard about take-down requests.

Gruber told New York she’s been “shocked by the reaction” to the story, which she said has included harassment and threats so severe that she’s acquired security. She said that she’d recently read So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, by Jon Ronson, a book about what happens to those who are dragged on the internet. On June 7, before the Post story and the fallout prompted her to make her social-media accounts private, Gruber tweeted, “I understand the urge to cancel racists. But truth is — we’re ALL racist, that’s the problem. And we all deserve the grace to learn and change. Let’s use these moments to change hearts and minds, not publicly shame.”

Gruber expressed surprise that the reporters directed so much attention to Schafer — and to herself and Prince — instead of the more notable people at the party. “I can understand people being curious: Why did they write a piece so focused on a private citizen?” she said. “But Tom [Toles] is a public citizen. To me, it’s about a larger problem, where people go to marches and then drink and dance with people in blackface.”

Toles’s cartoons have continued to run daily, and Coratti said that Toles had not been disciplined by the Post for any of his actions discussed in the story. Any employer would have a hard time justifying professional consequences for an employee’s past private failure to correct a non-employee’s objectionable behavior. But the lack of any managerial consequences for Toles would seem to undermine the newspaper’s case that the story was newsworthy: How can Toles’s failure to promptly order Schafer out of his house be simultaneously so important that it merits feature-length coverage in the paper and not important enough to merit workplace discipline? The story also makes clear that Toles misled both Gruber and a Post reporter — first by telling Gruber that “a lot of people show up who I don’t know, and I don’t recognize the woman you’re inquiring about,” then by telling a reporter that he wasn’t claiming not to recognize Schafer and just meant that he “didn’t recognize any bad intent.”

***

The Schafer story ran at a time of severe pressure on editorial management at the Post over issues related to diversity and news philosophy. Conflicts between the paper’s executive editor, Marty Baron, and two reporters — Wesley Lowery, who made high-profile arguments for newspapers to take clearer moral stances in their reporting and has since left the Post for CBS News, and Felicia Sonmez — over issues of objectivity on social media have spilled into public view. As the story about the two-year-old Halloween party was being reported, senior managers at the Post had recently received 32 pages of employees’ stories about racism and discrimination within the company, gathered by the employee union, according to an email reviewed by New York. A Post employee petition demanding changes in hiring and editorial practices drew nearly 500 signatures in 48 hours. Basically, it was the worst possible time for the Post to have a “blackface scandal,” especially one whose frame it did not control.

“From the outside, it seems clear someone complained to the Post about this stupid incident and rather than handling it as an HR matter, they decided the best thing for public relations would be to project transparency by reporting on it themselves,” said Lowery. “But what no one appears to have thought of is the way giving a massive amount of attention to a dumb incident involving private citizens would invariably do negligible good and cause massive amounts of harm — including to the Post itself.”

At the same time as U.S. newspapers face staff pressure, they face pressure from news consumers who are skeptical about their commitment to fairness. A challenge is that “fairness” means different things to different people, and a move toward what Lowery calls “moral clarity” in the news pages will appeal to some readers while alienating others. But one key element of fairness that is shared across competing visions of journalism is the news pages should be used for news, not as a PR shield to protect the newspaper’s business.

As is so often the case, if the Post had simply followed its own published editorial guidance that “fairness includes relevance,” it would have made the right decision and passed on this story. Asked repeatedly to define that phrase, newsroom leadership didn’t respond to New York.

- Please read our community guidelines.

- Have a concern or tech problem related to commenting? Report it.

- All comments with links in them will require a moderator to approve.

Viewing Optionsarrow_drop_down

- 295

roypatterson

19 HOURS AGO

Fed up with the Post; Profit driven and willing to stoop to tabloid standards the editorial staff no doubt is under the gun to produce revenues in the media altering digital age.

More to come folks, just stand by.

Will the last one with scruples please turn out the lights.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

smartnic

1 DAY AGO

Burn the witch!

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

alexminnb

1 DAY AGO

Authoritarian lefty types enjoy Inquisitions....aahhh yes, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and the beat goes on...

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dalef

2 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

The company that fired this woman should be outed. She was clearly wearing a Halloween costume for the purpose of social/political commentary and she was not even wearing this costume at work, but on her own time. A white person wearing blackface by itself does not necessarily indicate racism just as a black person dying her hair blond does not necessarily indicate racism.

There are certainly real acts of racism that need to be dealt with, but this is not one of them.

A company that would fire an employee over this incident is reactionary and seems run by hypersensitive, over-emotional simpletons, and it is a business that I would purposely avoid dealing with.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

britjet16

3 DAYS AGO

The man holding the highest office in the land fired the people who identifies his actions as wrong and harassed a whistleblower who was simply identifying his miscreant behaviour. This man is our employee and yet he is able to abuse the office and set an example that dwarfs this current episode to the point of miniscule. Moreover, he did all this with intent and revenge. Tell us again how we should behave with sensitivity and concern. If you're really concerned about racism and inappropriate behaviour why not start at the top.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

applescruffs123

3 DAYS AGO

You know! I don’t give a flying rat's patootie but this woman was well within her First Amendment rights. Granted, her behavior was entirely too impulsive and tacky, however she apparently had a wider commentary to exhibit. But even if she didn’t, innocuously coloring her face black etc. barely even is indicative of racism on her part, let alone behavior she should be punished and scorned for. I have a larger problem with the assaults upon free expression trying rearing its vile head, sprouting out in numerous, uncontrollable directions . When you boil the matter down, she is not like to harm anyone due to race. However, these "racial equality" proponents need to give it a rest, to select their battles rather than donning blindfolds and shooting at everything that moves.

Give it a rest! YOU ARE ALIENATING people who have supported you for decades– like ME!

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Aretino

3 DAYS AGO

Since it's bound to get out, I am  taking this chance to confess before the story appears in the Post. I once appeared in a small part in a play in redface. I know this part should have gone to a real native American, but my second grade class was small and I had the cheekbones. Mea culpa!

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

niero

3 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

278 comments and most people here, including the article author, believe that correcting a wrongdoing can only happen within 24 hours of the act.  So if someone puts on a pointy white robe for laughs, or mildly poisons the food you eat for giggles, or hits your dog on purpose with their car, or rapes your daughter -- you better catch them overnight or the media and police should just let it slip as all is forgiven if a year or more goes by. All in good fun!

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

smartnic

1 DAY AGO

The thought police should give your past a good going over. There's no reason to think you are error free. Criticism, self criticism.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Gerromy

4 DAYS AGO

This is the dark side of 'liberalism' -- probably best described as fundamentalist liberals. Balance out your enlightened, woke side by witch hunting those who do not comply. We love everyone so much we will kill those who do not agree to do the same.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Aretino

3 DAYS AGO

And that is the dark side of conservatism -- pretending a rather anomalous occurrence is defining and customary, and mounting your little soap box.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

sbjl6752

5 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

Obviously this IS a Big Deal. Heads must roll starting with Toles and Milbank who were clearly enablers in this racist sideshow. A coverup will prove there is massive hypocrisy among MSM dowagers and mandarins.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rockyboy

5 DAYS AGO

Blood in the water makes for easy witchhunts. Along with spineless management desperate not to be seen as un-woke. Corrati...

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

goldenboy

5 DAYS AGO

I've seen the argument quite a bit here that 'you also wouldn't dress as Hitler' and 'if you think dressing as Hitler is funny you are an antisemite'.

There is a huge chunk of Germany humor that is dressing up and making fun of Hitler. There was a book a while ago calle 'he's back again' with the joke being Hitler waking up in modern day Germany and being all confused. May I also direct you to Charlie Chaplins 'The Great Dictator' or recently Oscar Nominated gem 'Jojo Rabbit' with Taika Waititi dressing up as Hitler, among many other Nazi jokes. And a famous comic ridiculing Adolf sitting in his bunker:

Making fun of something atrocious can be diminishing it's effect. Over-riding or ridicure can have a deconstructing effect.

There is also an Israeli-German comedian named Shahak Shapira who's Twitter or Wiki page are worth checking out.

Blackface probably has a very different context and defininitely has a different cultural assesment. But Hitler-imitation-mocking is a really bad example. For Nazism, ridiculing is one form of deconstucting. Just think of how in Harry Potter Dumbledore makes a point of not giving the name Voldemort to much power by being afraid of saying it.

Taking power from something is one effect of humor. There might be a different approach to blackface in the US now, but don't think the Hitler-dress-up analogy is a good example. It is literally a counter-example.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

DastardlyDave

3 DAYS AGO

That was a great movie.   Actor did a fine job in it, he was mesmerizing.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

It’s always the white liberals in black face.

1. Jimmy Kimmel 2 Joy Behar 3. Jimmy Fallon 4. Ted Danson 5. Gov of Virginia now a private citizen. And this was after the minstrel shows, all one has to do is google to see how awful they are.

I left the democrat party long ago, I will never take the red pill, I will never vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden, not because I am not black - I am black, because I have a mind of mine own.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

And Howard Stern, Tina Fey, too many to list.  THEY LOST NOTHING but a private citizen did.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

JGH

5 DAYS AGO

But isn’t it liberals who are calling out people for wearing blackface? It’s certainly not conservatives who are canceling people for blackface, as we know, because they hate cancel culture. Megan Kelly lost her job for saying blackface wasn’t a big deal. So how do we contextualize this? You say it’s always the liberals in blackface, but liberals are also the ones criticizing blackface.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ministerial

5 DAYS AGO

Very easy to explain:

1. "Liberals" (what you actually mean is 'authoritarian modern Leftists,' who are actually quite iLLiberal) are racist. It's required to be a "white savior" "social" "justice" type. One must be superior to the 'pet races' to be a white savior, and one would not be a white savior without feeling guilty for being a racist. Similar effect with all male feminists being date rapists.

AND

2. Authoritarian lefty types enjoy Inquisitions. It's one of the best things about their awful new religion.... from their perspective anyway. (Until the Inquisition comes for them that is. And it always does. They never seem to notice. Amusing, that.)

Both can be true.

Both are true.

After all, we are talking about some of the most wretched awful people currently walking the planet. These are people who enjoy The Twitter Prison Experiment. These are people who volunteered to be guards.

The truly virtuous need not signal. Neither need regular old a**holes like me. I don't give a single solitary F about black people other than friends, family, & business associates, but neither do I feel they are some pathetic inferior bunch that needs my special help.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

4 DAYS AGO

Excellent post mini, and thank you!

'The truly virtuous need not signal.'  - we, at times, need to state the obvious.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

DastardlyDave

3 DAYS AGO

I'm too cheap to pay for the article behind the paywall, so thank you for this great comment which made my visit worthwhile.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

tinkerthecat

3 DAYS AGO

liberals are eating their own #yummyyummy : )

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Aretino

3 DAYS AGO

My! Everyone is sure up on their high horses.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

To Lexie Gruber,

Unless you tell someone you are of Puerto Rican dissent, no one would know, so keep enjoying that white privlege that you got from the post.  A black woman like myself who works a real job and who has experienced racism doesn’t have the privilege to bully the Post like you did.  Have several seats and check your privilege.  The nerve of you to keep making yourself the victim.  You are disgusting.  Shame on you Prince for being friends with her.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

goldenboy

5 DAYS AGO

I am sure black Americans experience racism way too regularly, but they are not the only ones who experience discrimination because of their race.  You shouldn't feed the need to invalidate other peoples experience just because you want to highlight the disciminations experienced by one group.

In the few months i lived in the US I experience way more race-based discimination or origin-discrimination than I did in years of living in Europe.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

The Wa Post story is why people clear their cookies instead of subssrbing.  Why do I want to pay to read someone’s agenda or opinion and not the news?

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pwakeman2029

5 DAYS AGO

Cancel Lexie Gruber and Lyric Prince. Let them lose their jobs too. What a mess the Washington Post has made of this. I hope Sue Schafer sues the hell out of them. If Hulk Hogan can win a defamation suit as a celebrity, making the private citizen argument, then certainly so can Ms. Schafer. WaPo deserves to be punished for this.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

sbjl6752

5 DAYS AGO

No. Toles and Milbank are the Upper level enablers. And the most visible figures at the WAPO.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rdford1116

6 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

The story is relevant in the same vein as if she showed up dressed like Hitler.  It would be in bad taste and offensive.  And what in the article indicates she was clueless to the negative connotation blackface would engender?  Should the Post have run the story,?  Yes.  Should she have been fired ?  Perhaps.  Should she have known that wearing  blackface is racially offensive?  Definitely.  I'm sure she'll get another job.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Lexie,

Cant wait until you are fired. Once again making yourself the victim “hired security”

You lied and said you were harassed by Schafer.  You are scum.  And white.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

letimaria

4 DAYS AGO

She didn't dress up as Hitler. There's absolutely no comparison between the two.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

Another reminder: just because someone believes the Post was wrong to run this story does not mean they agree with Schafer's actions; just because someone believes Schafer did not deserve to be fired for one racist act two years ago (for which she apologized) does not make them racist.

LIKEthumb_up7

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Pdub2907

6 DAYS AGO

Most of the "journalists" in mainstream media today do not deserve that title, they are openly journavists. I'm glad that people reacted angrily to WaPo running this story, but this decline in journalism has been occurring for a long time; Orange Man Bad simply finished off their melting brains. Imagine still having a WaPo or NYT subscription today, you've got to be hopelessly partisan or insane.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

"Gruber told New York she’s been 'shocked by the reaction' to the story, which she said has included harassment and threats so severe that she’s acquired security. She said that she’d recently read So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, by Jon Ronson, a book about what happens to those who are dragged on the internet. On June 7, before the Post story and the fallout prompted her to make her social-media accounts private, Gruber tweeted, 'I understand the urge to cancel racists. But truth is — we’re ALL racist, that’s the problem. And we all deserve the grace to learn and change. Let’s use these moments to change hearts and minds, not publicly shame.'"

Oh no, Gruber absolutely does NOT get to play a victim here. She not only rightfully called out Schafer at the time, she purposely sought out (well, essentially blackmailed) a major newspaper to drudge up a two-year-old incident in the hopes of publicly shaming Schafer. Everyone good now, or will Gruber feel compelled to turn this into a 5-part Netflix series?

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Google Gruber.  She is still acting like she was the only foster kid to ever exist.  That is her whole existence and is doing damage to the industry - as if it’s not damaged enough.  She is now inserting her political agenda with TROUBLED KIDS while painting herself as a victim (still) #sick

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

steen

6 DAYS AGO

This woman's first mistake was to wear a Halloween costume that needs to be explained to everyone who sees it, but her key mistake was to decide to wear a costume of something that shocked and scared her, foolishly assuming that everyone else would have the same level of understanding its shock/scary value. She didn't stop for a second to think that blackface mocking Megan Kelly would read as straight-up blackface wearing to a fair number of folks or that blackface is not something many people WANT to see on anyone and that by wearing blackface, she came across as a horrible person on her own. Honestly, the first time she had to explain to someone what she was wearing should have been the moment that she realized her outfit was not going to succeed the way she thought it would.

Does her misguided idea mean she should be fired and publicly shamed? Once she  was told it was inappropriate she apologized profusely, left the party in tears and worked on making herself a better person. Seems to me that she has learned what she did was inappropriate and not as clever as she thought it was. What does Gruber want from her? To have her kill herself?

LIKEthumb_up10

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

Agree.

And it was selfish for her to insist on wearing the “costume” but also selfish for Lexie Gruber wanting to be a hero by bullying the Post into writing the story.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

6 DAYS AGO

Newsflash Re BLM/Antifa: We're Being Swept Along by Hysteria About Racism in America (Brown University). Regardless, the Washington Post is indeed, Post-News.

Poor Lyric and Lexie - they are now the 'Poster-C****' for a generation of entitled soft children (I know, an insult to c****). Imagine being this stupid. Hang on a second, I’m gonna need some help with that. *smacks self in head with a tack hammer* Nope, still can’t imagine being that stupid. Never to be forgotten!

If you want to laugh hard, go to Reason online comments on this dramedy. Here's a taste: Be careful 'when pouring aunt jemimah over uncle bens rice. That could open up a wormhole to another dimension of woke grievances. You don’t wanna go there'  .. Happy Friday!

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

6 DAYS AGO

truth be known olivia nuzzi is vox's token karen

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

padpowell

6 DAYS AGO

Poor Sue Schafer is a sacrificial lamb on the altar of stupid white guilt and racist anti-racism. Liberal whites sacrifice "one of their own" to the blacks in order to "prove" they are not "racist." Of course since they can never "prove" it enough, the sacrifices go on and on.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

6 DAYS AGO

racist anti-racism

What does this mean?

You are white. I'm sure you have an answer.

Racism = The belief that we are not all one race (human), but instead separate races of humans. Generally associated with white supremacy which holds that white people (being a difference "race") are superior.

So if you are anti-racist you believe that we are all human and the color of your skin does not determine if you are good and grand. Anti-racists also reject the idea that people with white skin are superior to people who don't have white skin.

What is a racist anti-racist? Or... are you just trolling?

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

BlancheWhite

6 DAYS AGO

"Racist anti-racism" is like the fascist "anti-fascism" practiced by Antifa--  they claim to be against fascism but they're ardent practioners. Just as BLM claims to be against racism while continually practicing racism toward whites.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

johnny_lawrence

6 DAYS AGO

Oh, the irony.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Completely agree with you.

I am Black. These racist anti-racism are not in my name. We need to be inclusive if we are ever going to fight systemic racism and lack of opportunity.

William Wilberforce was a White man.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Pdub2907

6 DAYS AGO

Well said Vicky. We can only have racial reconciliation if we strive for equality, treating one another with the same amount of respect and dignity that we would anyone else. That's how we made strides the past several decades. Now, I fear, in our postmodern moral panic, we're going backwards. We're now being told that it actually is NOT the content of character of individuals that matter, it is group identity that determines one's character and nobility. It's insanity, and all this fake woke posturing, people pretending as if tearing down statues in an undemocratic, mob fashion, for example, is healthy progress....it's just sad.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

5 DAYS AGO

10/10

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rocket_j

6 DAYS AGO

Look, I think we’ve all learned that making fun of racist tropes is still racist when you’re not part of the maligned race.

But what about intent? This woman clearly wasn’t intending to mock black people.

LIKEthumb_up13

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

6 DAYS AGO

You, being white, know what her intent was?

Why? Because if you were to wear black face as a joke and was confronted by multiple people who were insulted, you, like the racist in the article, would... continue on and state that you think your costume is funny? I am guessing that you are confident in your heart that if two women of color, a Black taxi driver who brought you to the event >>AND<< multiple white people at the event told you they were offended... you would - because of your intent - continue with you "funny" joke of a costume?

I am guessing you, like Trump, will state that you are not racist. Amiright?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

6 DAYS AGO

Smile ulan - In 100 years, all new people! During your next meditation, repeat ' in 100 years, all new people'. Let me know how you 'feel' after 75 minutes. Again, I'm available for Q&A.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Uh no. Because Schafer stated her intent several times in the article, including wearing a name tag that specifically referenced the recent firing of Megyn Kelly. Hope this Latino cleared it up for you.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rocket_j

6 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

Er, I’m not white.

Blackface is always bad. Dressing up as another race or ethnic group is always bad.

But does a really stupid idea to be edgy (and mock Megyn Kelly’s comments on blackface) by this particular unknown women deserve a 1,000-word hit piece in the Washington Post?

Maybe. I don’t know. We’re all learning as we go.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pwakeman2029

5 DAYS AGO

The journalists at WaPo are not "learning as they go." They made a serious error in news judgement and need to be held accountable for their misdeeds.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rocket_j

2 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

Yeah, but it likely wasn’t a news decision. This came from above.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Ulan I am not white.  And I think you are part of the problem.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Motive is everything.  👌

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

To answer the actual question ("Why did the Washington Post get this woman fired?"):

Because extreme virtue-signaling is the way people defend themselves in this environment.  If you don't want to be accused and burned at the stake yourself, the best strategy is to quickly accuse someone else of being a witch.  It worked in Salem.  So now--at least for a little while--the Post can rest easy.  Attention has been drawn elsewhere.

The most regrettable thing about this kind of ideological policing is that it is pushing away people who support the cause but are disgusted by the pogroms being carried out by a minority of self-satisfied zealots.

LIKEthumb_up12

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

6 DAYS AGO

If you don't want to be accused and burned at the stake yourself, the best strategy is to...

not wear blackface.

There, I fixed it for you. See. Easy =)

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

Of course.  But this is unrelated to what I actually said.  I'm talking about the Washington Post's actions, not Schafer's.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

So true. Throw out the witch accusation first.

🤢

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

6 DAYS AGO

Excellent Kult, and thank you.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

jacobp

6 DAYS AGO

This is some inside baseball. Still, its thought provoking.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

gwernerstamphaus

6 DAYS AGO

So let's see if I've got this right:  (1) Megyn Kelly asks a dumb question about blackface on her morning show, a question reflecting her naïvete -- but not any intent to harm or make fun of anyone else;  (2) Ms. Kelly is fired; (3) A few days later, Sue Shafer intentionally mocks Megyn Kelly by dressing up as her in blackface -- certainly with an attempt to harm or make fun of another; and then, (4) Ms. Shafer in turn is fired.  Forgive me for pointing out that Ms. Shafer possibly got what she deserved:  “When you live by the sword you die by the sword."   This whole contretemps reminds me of the jockeying for favor in the 1930's Stalinist Russia.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

gwernerstamphaus

6 DAYS AGO

Of course, the stakes in Stalinist Russia were higher: perceived miscreants didn't get fired, they got shot.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

Don't go giving the extremists any ideas, please.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rocket_j

6 DAYS AGO

It’s a work Halloween party and Schafer wasn’t a public figure, so what possible harm could there be?

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

6 DAYS AGO

(1) Megyn Kelly asks a dumb question about blackface on her morning show, a question reflecting her...

racism.

There. I fixed it for you.

Question: If she asked if it was ok to use the N-word or dress up as Hitler or Stalin... would you still come riding to her defense?

Why are white women always assumed to be innocent, pure of heart and without malice... but black women, protesting under the First Amendment for their Constitutional rights are assumed to be thugs? Hmm... what is different here? I wonder...

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Enidcoleslaw

6 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

Why was Kelly necessarily racist to say that when she was a kid, dressing up as a black character for Halloween was acceptable?

While it would be reckless to do so in 2020 (as a matter of self-preservation, if nothing else), please explain the malevolent intent or result of dressing up as, say,  Josephine Baker, or Diana Ross & The Supremes, or Michael Jackson or James Brown, thirty years ago? Why would this offend you?

Stop dubbing things "racist" over and over without explanation. It's exhausting and unenlightening.

LIKEthumb_up7

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

6 DAYS AGO

Excellent Enid, and thank you.

Let's go easy on ulan (young/OCD) and hope she continues to craft a response :D.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

johnny_lawrence

6 DAYS AGO

This idea that motive/intent is irrelevant is pernicious, and should be rooted out and rejected by anyone who hopes to improve race relations in this country.

The notion that intent is irrelevant is completely incompatible with any notion of a “dialogue” or “conversation.”  The aggrieved becomes the exclusive judge, jury, and executioner:  there’s no need to have a conversation, when only one person’s view matters.

Understanding is at the root of building consensus, and consensus is necessary to accomplish any possible solution.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

booch221

6 DAYS AGO

So if I put on orangeface and go as Donald Trump on Halloween will I be outed too?

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Great question.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ata777

6 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

Progressives dumb enough to believe being "down with the cause" exempts them from the mob are going to learn a terrible lesson: NO ONE is exempt, and even the slightest transgression, no matter how far back in the past, can be a career-ender, or even life threatening.

And worst of all, you brought on yourselves.

LIKEthumb_up9

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

booch221

6 DAYS AGO

Ralph Northam seems to have weathered the storm.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Yes. The French Revolution came back to eat it's own

Beware.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

bigkimnyc

1 WEEK AGO

this was newsworthy to me, a Black woman, because it is a sign that enough might just be enough. unfortunately the tone of the authors show that they too are willing to accept a lil racism if it doesn't immediately result in death or bodily harm.Until white people can get over the idea that it is somehow wrong to hold some accountable for doing something racist, that somehow these things are just innocent mistakes, then we will continue to live in a world of inequality.  but news flash- every small act works a as drop in a bigger bucket that leads to us being murdered by those who have been conditioned to see us as less than human because of things like Black face.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

Hundreds of thousands of people of all races marching around the world is not already a sign that enough is enough?  A woman being fired for a racist thing she did two years ago is absolutely necessary?  Why must her "accountability" include being fired?

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

5 DAYS AGO

WaPo didn't fire her. Take it up with her former employer.

WaPo factually reported on a party hosted by one of their employees. The fact that a racist white lady showed up in black face and was not asked to leave by the host, is newsworthy. Well, it is if you are a human being who is anti-racist. Plenty of racists want to keep this kind of reporting out so that white supremacy can live on.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Good premise. Wrong extrapolation.

You cannot rid the world COMPLETELY of sin. We can bear with each other.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

JCH

6 DAYS AGO

I think you're missing the larger argument - take away the point that a private woman at a private party was wearing black face, we all agree it was wrong. But the Washington Post printing 3,000 words on a woman who is not a public figure, nor does she hold any public-facing position of import, is mind boggling. Generally, media outlets, especially ones with enormous reach, do not print exposes on private people at private parties because there are guidelines in journalism about the relevance to society. Again, take away the issue of blackface, which I know is hard, but what if she did some other reprehensible thing, or crime or whatever. Why is a national newspaper taking that on?

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

“Why is a national newspaper taking it on”

Because Lexie Gruber played the victim.  She said in the Post Schaefer harassed her but as you read further, she told Sue to leave someone she didn’t know and she wasn’t even a friend of the owner of the house.  = White Privlege = Lexie Gruber she bullied the Post by shopping the story around.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

4 DAYS AGO

we all agree it was wrong

No, we all do not. And no, we did not even know about it until this article came out.

Generally, media outlets, especially ones with enormous reach, do not print exposes on

True. And this is how white supremacy lives on. Sounds like you don't want it to end.

take away the issue of blackface

Wut? This is the entire issue. What are you talking about?

Why is a national newspaper taking that on?

Because racism and racist acts are newsworthy. The press reports on what is wrong with our society. Racism is wrong. WaPo reported on it.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

But it wasn't mocking a person of color, it was mocking the ignorance of a white conservative (hence the "Megyn Kelly" name tag) who didn't understand why blackface was a problem. The issue was also promptly dealt with at the time. Should Ms. Schafer's really bad costume from two years ago be reason for Ms. Gruber to doxx her in perpetuity? How long do we go before a person has atoned enough? Honestly, I'd like to know.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pwakeman2029

5 DAYS AGO

The response has to be proportionate. If someone attacks you with words, then words are an appropriate response. If someone wears blackface to a social gathering, isn't the appropriate response snubbing them socially? I've recently been through a bunch of HR training regarding appropriate responses to racist statements, actions and behaviors in the workplace. The best result is to get the offender to realize they made a mistake, which Sue Schafer obviously already did. I think you also need to be wary of messing with people's livelihood if they have not committed an actual crime. It is unforgivable.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ObserverInPA

1 WEEK AGO

And, oh, the irony of Margaret Sullivan's "who, me?" role in all this. Remember when she was the holier-than-thou Public Editor of some elitist rag in NYC?

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ObserverInPA

1 WEEK AGO

So Accenture consultant Lexie sees herself as the Real Victim here?  She's played that role before - google her name and Quinnipiac...

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

(Edited)

She was aiming to get Toles fired. And she moves in Toles circle.

I got 3 words for Toles - Watch Ya Bakk!

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

letimaria

4 DAYS AGO

Yoikes. I just took your advice. No Mexican on Earth has ever taken offense to a maraca.

I lived in Mexico and I'm quite certain I've seen maracas there. I would forgive her youthful indiscretions if she weren't still on the same tired script.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

moondawg78

1 WEEK AGO

So now that the story and subsequent reception is clearly newsworthy, why is Schafer's former employer shielded by anonymity?

It seems its bad actions are second to only the Post's yet the company suffers no fallout.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

bagendhouse1

1 WEEK AGO

If you subscribe to the WP, cancel your subscription. They are no longer anywhere near a journalism outlet. It's nothing but Woke-smoke now.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

wuss woke and thin smoke for sure .

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

closecrater

1 WEEK AGO

We live in a hyper-critical snarkosphere where any action can turn into a career-ending incident.  Beware!  Stay home. Wear a mask.

LIKEthumb_up7

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

you ain't a kidding .

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Can do.

And sleep only with one eye closed.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

wlayer9

1 WEEK AGO

Once upon a time behavior off the job was off limits, only job performance counted, that was the Post line on gay people or adulterers, etc.,  the Post never tired of reminding everyone.  But now after hours  actions can get you fired right in accord with the pernicious PC movement. Then again, hypocrisy has always been the Post's strong suit.

LIKEthumb_up7

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

the cell phone camera has made everything fair game with a top prize for the raunchiest video

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

fannika

1 WEEK AGO

I think the only way to fix this is for The Post to offer a job to Shafer. They got her fired over a poorly reported, ridiculous story brought to them by a fame-seeking, self-obsessed dumb person who does not understand what racism is. Or Bezos could hire her...although working for Amazon may be more of a punishment.

LIKEthumb_up17

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

I think the only way to fix this is for white people to stop being racist.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

How does that "fix" things for Shafer?  Please stay on topic.

LIKEthumb_up7

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

fannika

5 DAYS AGO

How is that not on topic? She lost her job because of an unfair article and the fix is a new job offered by the people who caused her to lose her job. (Also, lighten up...).

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Ulan is Lexie.  No one else is that dense.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Sailor123

1 WEEK AGO

Too bad! She is an evil racist.... Isn't how that works, even for WP employees?

What do you want, that she get the Gov. Ralph "KKK" Northam exemption, or something?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Jazzdelmar

1 WEEK AGO

The Post should hire the cabby for VP of quality control. And, what, no tastelessness knock on the great Dana for his beer/supremo get-up?

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

rdemeo4040

1 WEEK AGO

We've culturally lost our ability to determine nuance when it comes to sensitive matters.

No matter how cringe-worthy her costume may have been, it was  JUST a costume that poked fun at another public figure's disgrace. The Constitution is supposed to protect freedom of speech and expression.

I can't help but wonder what legal actions are available to this woman for getting smeared and fired.

LIKEthumb_up15

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Sailor123

1 WEEK AGO

Oh, it's "nuance" now?

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

getting smeared and fired.

Wait. Wut?!?

She wore blackface to a party. Her cab driver told her he was offended. Two Women Of Color told her they were offended. A few white people said they were offended. She told them she didn't care and that she thought it was funny.

WaPo wrote a piece on the facts.

How is she getting smeared? Do you think white women can't be racist and do racist things? Can white women create hostile environments for WOC? Is reporting on what she did "smearing" her?

I don't think "freedom of speech" means what you think it means. She was free to speak. WaPo is free to write about what she did.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

The point is that this story is not in line with their stated news values.  It's not about free speech.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

lylepearson

5 DAYS AGO

ulan, so you were the cab driver right?

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Ulan is Lexie

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

Who took the Fizz Outta Physics!

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

deirdrecorley

1 WEEK AGO

This person was in blackface for the sake of mocking Megan Kelly, not black people. It was misguided and offensive, but it certainly didn't seem to have anti-black intent behind it. There are people in positions of power doing far worse than this every single day, inflicting actual harm on people of color. The time the Post spent reporting this could have been spent doing the actual work that needs to be done to expose those people, CEOs, politicians etc. They should be ashamed of themselves.

LIKEthumb_up28

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

martinbrice

6 DAYS AGO

Sort if ironic but from what I saw of the original Kelly piece that caused her ouster from NBC and sparked the costume, there was no anti-black intent at all but her honestly asking about Halloween. I remember seeing people in blackface as Bob Marley or Prince or whatever and no one screamed racism when I was younger.  Intent matters. If someone is a fan of someone, why can they not dress up as them?  If you are making fun of someone that is an entirely different story and in this case it was off because no one was really sure what she was dressed up as but it should not have led to her getting fired.  Also no one has the right to not be offended.  You may not like something, and you are welcome to say so, but that does not give you the right to stop others from doing something if it is not hurting you. That is the tough side of free speech because once you start drawing lines as we are now, free speech is no longer free. Just look at anyone who has questioned about BLMs motives lately. We keep going down this path and it will lead to even worse times. Twitter is the worst technology of the 21st century so far.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

6 DAYS AGO

Intent may matter to you. You are white.

Clearly, people were upset with what she was doing - and confronted her. She replied by saying that she didn't care if they were upset - she, a white lady wearing black face paint that has historically been used to oppress black people - decided it was funny and she was going to carry on.

Her intent was to do what she wanted. WaPo reported on that. She is free to be racist. WaPo is free to talk about her racism.

Why are you, a white person, defending racism? I think this is exactly the time for you to sit down and listen to Black people who are telling you to stop being racist.

Sit down. Listen. Learn. Be better.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Jimmy Kimmel thanks you.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

No Ulan. I mean Lexie. You sit down and learn.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

6 DAYS AGO

See 4040 comment above.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

catowner

1 WEEK AGO

The thing that has my jaw still on the floor is that Ms. Gruber has the temerity to make her commentary about the trauma of having been publicly shamed HERSELF for her astonishingly immature, vindictive, attention-seeking behavior in the backlash to this story. Oh! She's reading Jon Ronson, "So You've Been Publicly Shamed." This detail is epically 2020. What a fine job. Now we can all rest easy that-- for sure! -- the lady will not repeat her Megan Kelly Blackface costume of 2018.

LIKEthumb_up12

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

tomcrippen

1 WEEK AGO

The weird thing is that Gruber tweeted her anti-shaming reflections before she faced online backlash. At that point she hadn't even contacted Toles for the person's identity. It was after her anti-shame tweet  that Gruber tried to hunt down the blackface wearer and then get the Post to write up the person's misdeed.

Why get pious about not shaming and then piously try to bring shame down on a stranger? One suspects that Gruber just likes being pious and takes opportunities as they come.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

catowner

1 WEEK AGO

I wasn't reading closely enough and missed that sequence of events. That is odd.

To be clear, though, I am not opposed to some instances of public exposure of egregious behavior; but to my mind only where the party has power and influence, or holds public trust, and other means of redress have failed completely. But not for a private citizen, especially one who has acknowledged her wrong and apologized.

I fully support aggressive action in countering racism and abuse. But in the case the punishment was severely out of proportion to the circumstances.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ObserverInPA

6 DAYS AGO

Google Lexie's name and Quinnipiac. She's done this before to similar effect. Extremely publicity-hungry.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

From the APHSA website: "Remember the name Lexie Gruber. You will probably be hearing it in the years ahead because Lexie has already defined a purpose for her life -- and a plan. “I hope to one day become Governor of Connecticut and work to improve the lives of the individuals within my home state."

Foreshadowing.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

catowner

6 DAYS AGO

Just came back to note that I read about the events that occurred at this subject's college, and I do not find them remotely parallel to the circumstances in this story.

In that case, her comments were perfectly appropriate and she was indeed unfairly targeted with gross abuse. In that environment, I can see the criticism was unexpected, but it was also valid.  The sorority mishandled the issue very badly. There was no basis for cancelling the event -- all they had to do was reach for a deeper cultural understanding; they missed a real opportunity for community growth and education. Instead they closed the discussion and caused deeper harm.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

letimaria

4 DAYS AGO

Her taking offense to maracas on a flier for a Mexican-food themed fundraiser for foster children isn't appropriate. It's ridiculous.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timkens

1 WEEK AGO

She should have paid attention to the cab driver and just turned around and gone home.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

THIS!!! Someone tells her to her face it's a bad look, but she kept going.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Enidcoleslaw

1 WEEK AGO

Yes, but she was certain that the urbane sophisticates at the party would appreciate her Meghan Kelly skewer. They'd laugh and laugh and laugh. What does a cabdriver know from witty progressive humor?

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

tomcrippen

1 WEEK AGO

Yeah. she should have. And the Post shouldn't have run that dumb story that ruined her life.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

773SleepyHollow

VULTURE INSIDER

5 DAYS AGO

Poor widdle blackface-loving white woman.  I'm playing the world's tiniest violin for her.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pwakeman2029

5 DAYS AGO

Inability to empathize with someone just because of their skin color?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Oddly enough, the WaPo article claims that when she explained the costume to the cab driver, he wasn't offended.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

sbodiker

1 WEEK AGO

Who are "management consultant Lexie Gruber and her friend Lyric Prince, an artist?" What was their motivation? Why we their story given such credibility? I'd like to know how they got away with this?

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

I think their motivation was, they were offended by someone being racist, and their story was credible because it happened and nobody disputed that it happened. And finally, they "got away with this" because they didn't do anything wrong; the person who did the racist thing was in the wrong.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

justtoclarify

1 WEEK AGO

Close, but no cigar. They are upset that the man in power did nothing, at the time, and now needs to be held to account... They thought he would be the one to get cancelled, not the other gal.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Schafer was wrong. Schafer apologized to everyone and anyone she could at the time. She was rightfully disgraced, and Gruber and Prince even had an opportunity to loudly confront her at the time. Why did the incident not end there? Why was it revived two years after the fact BY GRUBER with the sole intention of exposing Schafer's name by a major newspaper? THIS is SJW gone wrong, and the fact that you can't see that doesn't bode well for resolving and fixing racism.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

richard

1 WEEK AGO

John Carreyrou single handed brought down Theranos. Marc Fisher and Sydney Trent, team work, mightily brought down... Sorry, who??? Truly a sad new low for pop journalism.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pwakeman2029

5 DAYS AGO

Cancel Marc Fisher and Sydney Trent.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Actually, John Carreyou would tell you he could never have told the Theranos story if it weren’t for his brave sources that cost them dearly.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

SharonJG

1 WEEK AGO

Lexie is a Karen.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

sharon is a karen

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

SharonJG

3 DAYS AGO

Sharon is pseudonym. You can look it up.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pfrock

1 WEEK AGO

i subscibe tothe Post.  When i say this headline "Blackface Incident at Post Cartoonist’s 2018 Halloween Party Resurfaces Amid Protests” i immediately thought "muckraking", so never read what obviously was going to be hit job.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

j238

1 WEEK AGO

Someone out of the public eye with no governmental power was inappropriate at a private event.

Common sense says don't report this.  Most people's worst moments don't qualify as news.

If it is decided this must be reported, the Washington Post had the option not to publish her name.

Clearly, there were some really inappropriate decisions made at WaPo.

LIKEthumb_up10

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Common sense? Or white common sense?

I say, report it. If one's worst moment happens to be mocking the color of another person's skin by applying a darker color to one's own face, it's pretty bad and I don't have much sympathy.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

johnny_lawrence

1 WEEK AGO

It was a dumb costume, but not because she was being racist.

It’s because far too many people are too sensitive, too reactionary, or too dumb to realize the costume was satire—she was mocking Megyn Kelly’s defense of blackface, thereby aligning with the “anti-racist” view.

Exhibit A:  Lexie Gruber

Exhibit B:  Lyric Prince

Exhibit C:  You

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Black face is never ok even if mocking a sh*thead like Megyn Kelly,  after Schafer had to keep explaining her “costume” should’ve been the minute she washed her face.  But no,. she didn’t. Lexie embarrassed her at the party rightfully but it should have ended there.  Lexie loves attention.  Just google her.  Lexie is a professional victim.

-Signed Black Woman. A Strong Black Woman.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

expopsy

1 WEEK AGO

She wasn’t mocking black people, she was mocking Megan Kelly. It was a dumb idea, but if every person’s “worst moment” were deemed newsworthy, virtually everyone would be screwed.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

KultureKritik

6 DAYS AGO

Could we please not use terms like "white common sense?"  It's just as bigoted as "black common sense."

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Mocking a white conservative who didn't understand why blackface was a problem. Maybe I don't get that because I'm not white.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

Give it a rest Lexie.  It’s not just white people like you who think you are wrong.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

msully25

1 WEEK AGO

Glad the writers agree that the Washington Post shouldn't have outed that private citizen about wearing blackface, but I'm curious why articles like this one and at Reason repeat the woman's name, signal-boosting the original call out.  Is it because you really only care about the intra-industry controversy and not the woman herself?

And for those defending the article - the argument (from most of us) isn't that blackface isn't wrong, it's that the penalty should be proportional to the act - being criticized so much at the party that you leave crying, apologize to the host, and end up in therapy for a year seem about right.  Being nationally shamed seems a bit much.

LIKEthumb_up10

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

patrizio

1 WEEK AGO

I agree with you. But, someone had a vendetta against this woman or figured she was an easy target to show how woke they are. I hope she sues for PTSD.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Clearly, the person who wore blackface (by her own choice) is the victim here.

I wouldn't want the white lady who put on blackface to suffer from trauma or stress. I mean, no person of color would ever feel trauma or stress from seeing a white lady show up to a party in blackface, amirite? She's the one with the case for damages!!

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Jesus Christ, you really are doubling down on this. Gruber and Prince called her out at the party. She was rightfully driven from the event. Yet you see no problem by Gruber dredging up a two-year-old incident and essentially blackmailing a major U.S. publication to look into the incident and run the story in some sense of social justice. My God. Talk about killing a mosquito with a cannon.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

It counters the google “googling” juice.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dpeatebc

1 WEEK AGO

These are Stalinist purges, plain and simple.  The only difference is that the victims are not facing execution.  But the motivation is the same:  to cow everyone into doctrinaire adherence to the party creed.

LIKEthumb_up9

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

Ah!

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

1 WEEK AGO

'Newsflash re BLM and Antifa: The United States doesn’t negotiate with violent terrorists.' Also, I worked at the NY Times for decades - w/ Punch, Pinch, Lelyveld, Rosenthal, Frankel etc. Regretfully, The Washington Post is indeed, Post-News. Again, the truth should piss you off!

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

What the hell does the first part mean? You’re saying BLM is a violent terrorist organization? 70% of Americans disagree with you.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dpeatebc

1 WEEK AGO

Well that was belied by an interview last night with Martha MaCallum on Fox News.  A BLM leader explicitly threatened violence if "we don't get what we want."

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Enidcoleslaw

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

BLM has already instigated violence countless times. Their leaders encouraged the looting & rioting that went on in LA on May 30, telling a rally audience to 'disrupt white capitalism', among other things. They're a  despicable organization, trying to foment violent Marxist revolution. Wouldn't you love to have these thugs as central planners?

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

patrizio

1 WEEK AGO

Thugs? You're pathetic.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Yet it was the white right-wing Bugaloo ex-law enforcement guy who ended up actually killing two cops. And it was more right-wing guys caught by the FBI who were planning terrorist attacks under the cover of the protests. So who are the real thugs?

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

1 WEEK AGO

I'm sorry this is hard for you. Might that poll be propaganda? Just a thought. Please read 'Inventing Reality' (Parenti)... media are not truthful, instead 'they create a view of reality supportive of existing social and economic class power.' This is not new-news. Good luck :D.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crumbcake

1 WEEK AGO

This may help. I define BLM as a fashionable salon for imbeciles, and Antifa as a gang of simple sociopaths.  Please ask questions.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

bagendhouse1

1 WEEK AGO

BLM is now "beer liquor merchandise" or "blacks looting merchants". There is nothing in the BLM about helping blacks, unless it is getting certain people free TVs and some of that good scotch. Remember, nothing says "Black liberation malarkey" like free wine.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

iainclodagh2

1 WEEK AGO

Just another instance of someone "getting woke" and now going broke.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

jackhoysted

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Oh come on, they thought they were going to get hammered because a star of their paper had allowed some woman to do a bad joke at a party, and they panicked.

they shat their little pants over it and were happy enough to throw this smuck under a bus in case it hurt their business.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

"A bad joke."

Isn't this the *real* point of contention about this story? Those that make the judgment that a little blackface is not that bad, certainly not enough to lose one's job over? That somehow in 2018 it's still ok to put on blackface as a joke, as long as you *believe* you're not a racist, you can use the tropes of racism because your intentions are good. (Though of course anyone seeing you would only being seeing a white person in blackface. In 2018.)

For me, I wonder how only 2 people at that entire party were offended enough to say or do something. How typical it is that a whole room full of educated white people just wanted to sweep it under the rug because causing a scene would be worse. How a comments board full people don't see what the big deal is. Why do a few people have to get their panties in a bunch and not laugh? About a teeny tiny incident of blackface. Where is our sense of humor?

I mean most of the people making this argument consider themselves not racist, some are even liberals. Laughable, really.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

johnny_lawrence

1 WEEK AGO

You know who agrees with you?  The lady who wore blackface, in an attempt to criticize blackface via satire.

Perhaps the other people in the room were smart enough to realize that.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

It’s never okay to wear black face.  Let’s get that straight.  Ever.

It’s also never okay to give in to an attention seeking people like Lexie Gruber either.  Both are wrong,

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pwakeman2029

5 DAYS AGO

The real point of contention is that Sue Schafer is not a public figure and the WaPo has no business writing about her. As a former journalist, I find this story to be offensive on journalistic grounds.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Also, you swallowed whole Barro and Nuzzi's spin on this story that it was a pre-emptive strike by WashPost to save their own star. Do you even know who Olivia Nuzzi is and her well-known biases writing for the NYPost? Or that Barro is also very much right of center? Maybe you share that skew, but if not, it's pretty funny how you didn't question their motivation and completely bought their perspective without a thought.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

TitanKitty

1 WEEK AGO

The Post did it simply because they can. It was a demonstration of POWER, pure and simple.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

I'm ok with exposing racists when they do racist things. Racism is not good for society. It is a lie and it kills.

I think WaPo did the public a service by exposing this incident. More please. Shine a bright light on racism. Let's get rid of it.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Yes, dear one, this incident is solving racism all over the place. Done. Solved. Nothing left to see here.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

reille.vander

5 DAYS AGO

odder,

Ulan is Lexie. She comments on other websites with that moniker.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

meakinkiel

1 WEEK AGO

Answer: because she did what is now classes as in and of itself racist

The motivation is not important anymore.

It's right she was fried, as it was right for all the others who before and since have been called out. You can't pick and choose.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Enidcoleslaw

1 WEEK AGO

You can't pick & choose? You think Jimmy Kimmel, Howard Stern, and Tina Fey will be fired? Face it, it's all about picking and choosing.

LIKEthumb_up14

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

unmutualanddisharmonious

1 WEEK AGO

Now do Mark Herring!

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

Says who?

Give Geoffrey Berman his retirement benefits.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

the washington post is not a respected news paper

back to the blab :

LIKEthumb_up7

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

Yes, it is

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dkschrader80

1 WEEK AGO

The Post is a stridently partisan left wing rag. It’s a joke. Pravda had more legitimacy.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

oasisgirl

1 WEEK AGO

I love Prada!

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

Has the second largest subscription base in the country.

pro-tip If you think Breitbart is a news site, you’re not allowed to judge quality in media

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

hillary came in second also !  !

perfect for the butt hurt liberal loser

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

And? Walmart is the largest employer in the country and ExxonMobil is the biggest oil company in the world. It doesn't mean they get it right or are doing good things simply because a lot of people really really like them.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Clearly, this being Nuzzi's second long-form article on cancel culture, this apologist for Rudy Giuliani and former NYPost shlock-producer seems to have a lot of criticism of other news outlets. Clean your own house, Olivia.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

ollie doesn't have a house and writes what she is told to write

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

You mean, she has an editor? Or, is this just more of “a shadowy group of all powerful people are running a giant media conspiracy and Olivia (who, parenthetically is a damn good reporter) is just a spike in their grand plan to slander the DEAR LEADER”?

Cuz, if it’s the latter, then you’re touched in the head

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

ollie doesn't have an editor, she has handlers

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

So you’re a conspiracist too? First, the rancid white nationalist politics and now believing there’s a vast conspiracy running the news media. Tell us, David, who are these handlers? Are they “international financiers”? Zionists? The Trojans -Lateral Commision?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

1 WEEK AGO

vox

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

Give David Shor his job back.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

yellojkt

VULTURE INSIDER

1 WEEK AGO

Schafer was thrown under the bus to protect Tom Toles, pure and simple. Every paragraph in the original article circles the wagon around him.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Really? And you decided this based on what Nuzzi is telling you? Consider the source.

Not sure exactly what Toles did wrong or needs to be protected from. Why should he be punished while the person who actually committed blackface be anonymized and defended?

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

She wasn’t defended. That’s the point of this article.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

She's being defended in *this* article and a lot of these comments are agreeing with *this* article.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dkschrader80

1 WEEK AGO

What are you talking about? She was destroyed.

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

She wasn't "destroyed"; she lost her job. Sometimes actions, when they are bad, have consequences. For a long long time people did all sorts of racist stuff, small and large, with impunity. Thank goodness things are changing.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

fannika

1 WEEK AGO

She was not racist, she was trying to make fun of a racist woman. Poorly. But sure, this is the firing that will bring us into an era of racial justice. Justin Trudeau is still prime minister of Canada. And Jimmy Kimmel will be back on TV when summer is over.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

bigkimnyc

1 WEEK AGO

Excuse me?  she WAS racist, and unless the people on here saying it wasnt are Black and have experienced racism or what it feels to be in a a racially hostile social situation, then you really have no right to call it.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

Find a team for Colin Kaepernick.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

100%

He lost his job and he didn't do anything wrong. Like mocking another person's skin color as a Halloween costume.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

davifranci

6 DAYS AGO

he lost his job because he is a has been .

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

Do you think what Tom Toles did was right? Do you think he looks good?

When he saw his friend in blackface he should have pulled her to the side and told her to get rid of it and/or go home. He didn't.

When the two women of color confronted her - and when a few white people did - the lady should have taken off the face paint and/or left. The party wasn't that big. Toles must have known what was going on. And even if he didn't, the white guests did and they should have ALL been upset. White people should not want to party with racists.

When confronted by one of the women of color, Toles should have apologized for his role. He didn't. Instead he lied and said that he didn't know the person. He was actively defending a racist friend who had created a hostile environment.

Please go read up on the three police officers in Wilmington, N.C. who just got fired for a two hour conversation - while on the job - about wanting to kill black protesters upset about police brutality. There is a direct line between white people thinking it is humorous to wear black face and police officers being upset about the public demand the they stop systematically brutalizing black people.

Either you are promoting racism or you are fighting against it. Toles was not fighting against it. His white friend in black face was not fighting against it. Sounds like you are not fighting against racism either.

Why not?

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

biswa_bhandari12

1 WEEK AGO

Thank you for good information. adventure mountain trekking

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

White Women's Toxic Tears. Jen Hatmaker has a great podcast on this subject.

It seems like the authors think white supremacy should not be called out. I wonder if they would feel that way if the woman came dressed as Hitler... Probably not because, you know, Hitler is not funny. Keeping black people enslaved for 400 years? Now that's worth a costume.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pedler

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

People pursuing this wild drive for revenge have totally lost the plot. What goal or purpose did printing the Post story serve? Did anyone learn anything? Will someone's behavior change? Has anyone, lol, gained any civil rights from destroying a private citizen?

Political action should serve clear ends, and the tactics activists use always deserve scrutiny. Public shaming and denunciation do nothing except alienate potential supporters who find petty vindictiveness revolting. But by all means keep doing what makes you feel good, since that's what this is all about.

LIKEthumb_up13

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

I guess one person sees accountability while another makes excuses for everything white women do to harm POC.

How does it feel defending racists when they do racist things?

Next you will say that the Black people demanding to be treated equally before the law are requesting special privileges that before were only afforded to white people such as yourself. Equality must look scary from where you sit.

"Political action should serve clear ends..." So... blackface is now clever? Understood. I guess wearing a white hood is the hight of irony then...

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dleonejr

1 WEEK AGO

Peddler - well said and dead-on.

What some fail to understand is how an urgent and necessary societal goal can be undermined by those more animated by vengeance than change.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

Great quote.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

"Wild drive for revenge"? Do you think this is about revenge? Facepalm yourself, cuz I'm doing it for you.

"Did anyone learn anything? Will someone's behavior change? Has anyone gained any civil rights from destroying a private citizen?" YES. YES. YES. to your 3 clueless questions. Anyone reading the original article who didn't already know the obvious, like Schafer who thought it was a GOOD idea to put dark shoe polish (or whatever she used) as a costume might understand -- yet again! -- it is not. If that article prevents one person from putting polish on their face. thinking it's funny or harmless, then it will be a good thing, particularly for that person so that they don't lose their job from their own stupidity. And yes, black people (and really, anyone) do gain civil rights to not be offended by stupid white people.

Shafer is a private citizen who did a very stupid thing, and that thing has consequences, no matter how delayed. If her life was destroyed, she destroyed it herself, from her own actions. The excuse should not be, oh, she's not a public figure or oh, it's 2 years later. Blackface was understood to be terrible in 2018!!

Is this educational for you? Then you are one more person who is learning from having that original article published. Typical excusing and right-wing "freedom" is expected from Nuzzi, and even though Barro is somewhat right of center, it's illuminating to know he's in her Trump-y camp too. So I learned from this article too.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

It was a widely read article then? Studied in elementary schools? No one learned anything about this other than Schafer lost her job.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

Give me back Senator Al Franken.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

You read it. A few other people seem to have read it. (Oh and btw, blackface is studied in schools.)

You seem to have learned that if you do blackface at a party, most of the people won't care and you will keep your job and go about your life with no consequence. Absolutely nothing will happen to you and you can wear blackface to next year's Halloween party and that's ok too. Then the next year too.

However, if someone happens to note it a few years later by writing about it in the paper, then you may lose your job. But really, the odds are so low that you will be written about that you really can do blackface whenever you want because literally no one will bother you for maybe 2 years!! and probably, well, ever. (Because folks don't think it's that bad, certainly not losing-your-job bad, and they'll defend you. Like they are doing here.)

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

krumhornspeaks

1 WEEK AGO

You’re so vicious!  I realize that with such acute moral clarity, you burn in ecstasy seeking purification, but you take such obvious delight in causing the personal ruin of a stranger, you step all over the desired message. People can see that this is fun for you destroying others and wrapping yourself in a mantle of presumed moral superiority.  I’m not buying that you rabid lefties have a monopoly on virtue. I’m buying that you are rabid.

- Krumhorn

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

Well-said

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

unmutualanddisharmonious

1 WEEK AGO

Now do Northam!

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

👍

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

💓@ potential  supporters

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

Three police officers in Wilmington, N.C. were just fired for having a conversation - while on the job! - about wanting to kill black protesters who are upset about police brutality.

Please sit with that for a minute...

Now then, about that "wild drive for revenge" you were talking about...

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Ulan, I have been trying to follow your argument but you just keep saying White Supremacists. Hitler costume. You have not expantiated. You have not volunteered other instances to prove that Sue Schafer is a racist.

I wanted to go and google Gruber and Prince but I won't bother. Criminal Minds will do. Black grrls. Indian woman's hair attachment and eyelashes. Gym rats. Chamomile and turmeric healthy zero-calorie tea drinkers. Gluten-free rice and bread eaters.

Quick to take offence.  As the elephant keeps grudge for warmth. A take down two years in the waiting.

I am Black and middle-aged. A woman who wears a Blackface at a private fun party offends me not. Because I have bigger axe to grind.

And the fact that Sue turned right back and went home with apologies shows she had no motive of harm.

We have bigger problems in this era. Systemic racism. Systemic barriers for people at the bottom of the food chain. Voter suppression. Absence of a Black WalMart. Absence of a Black Beauty Supply. Absence of a Black McDonald's. That is something Gruber can spend time selling to Mayweather and MJ.

Progressives eating Liberals eating Leftists eating BLMs is an ill wind that blows no one any good.

Don't let the Barr-McConnell-Hannity-Zuckerberg industrial complex keep you distracted with superfluous cultural wars and petty grudges while the real danger is out there.

Move on. Nothing to see here. And yes. Rachel Dolezal can darken her skin and wear corn rows after all Nicki Minaj is skin-peeled now and whiter than she was as a toddler.

Please people.

LIKEthumb_up14

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

"We have bigger problems in this era. Systemic racism..."

If you don't think that calling out instances of blatant racism as they occur, or even a couple years later, doesn't help the fight against systemic racism, then you are a clueless middle-aged black woman who doesn't get it.

These kind of everyday aggressions contribute to the daily degradation and de-humanization of people of color. Further, the white people who witness such actions and see no consequence are re-affirmed in their belief that this kind of thing is ok, then perpetuate other small but meaningful offenses that put down people of color. It contributes to a culture where people of color can be mocked in this way, even if the intent of the abuser is benign. And culture is systemic!!! Why is this hard to understand?

This woman stood in 2018 and thought it was a good idea to do this. It was not then, it is not now. I'm absolutely astonished that there are people in this comments section who are defending her or want her to get away with impunity. Should the Central Park Karen get away with it, even though she's a private citizen and no one got hurt? It is absurd.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

krumhornspeaks

1 WEEK AGO

This woman stood in 2018 and presented herself in costume mocking a public figure who didn’t see the problem with the costume. Whether it was good judgement or bad, or whether the mocking misfired or not, it is not a defense of her conduct to say that the Committee on Consequences For Wrongthink is batsh*t crazy to ruin somebody nobody knows and to take such casual delight in doing so  because moral clarity.

...if only Comrade Stalin knew

- Krumhorn

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

bigkimnyc

6 DAYS AGO

nibbly- The Black middle aged woman, like so many others her (and my age) has been brainwashed to think that casual racism is ok, because she probably faces it every day and has acclimated for self survival. As or the white people in these comment, they are proof at how embedded racism is into the American psyche that they vant even see how little things like this end up leading to the murder of George Floyd. I fear despite all the trendiness of BLM right now, that American havent learned a damn thing.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

I am Black and middle-aged.

This may come as a shock to you, but the article wasn't written about you. It was a factual piece involving racism. Just because you are ok with the racism, doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't hear about it.

Did you know that three police officers in Wilmington, N.C. were just fired for having a conversation - while on the job! - about wanting to kill black protesters who are upset about police brutality.

Do you think that is an over-reaction? Is that simply a "petty grudge"?

Personally, if the "culture wars" you are talking about involve stopping white supremacy, I don't see them as a distraction at all. But then, I actually am Black and middle-aged and racism actually bothers me.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Yeah, thanks for pointing out the officers. They actually wield power over people, and were threatening to take the lives on people because of their race. Abhorrent and criminal. Sue Schafer's crime is just like that. Totally.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

moosewilson

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Has it ever occurred to you that there are pro-active racists and there are people who are just tone-deaf? A lot of "racism" is unintentional, resulting from not being able to *relate* to other people, either due to lack of life experience or just because no one set them down and explained why it's wrong.

Losing the plot is real. Now my favorite 30 Rock episode is gone because *it was making fun of racism*.

But for some reason Charlie Chaplin's mockery of Hitler is still streaming on HBO Max, but why? Because Hitler!!!!

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

JGH

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

A lot of "racism" is unintentional, resulting from not being able to *relate* to other people, either due to lack of life experience or just because no one set them down and explained why it's wrong.

Remove the scare quotes around “racism” (which seems to imply that it’s not racist to wear blackface) and I agree with this.

A lot of  folks do think that only capital-R Racism “counts”, that it’s fine for white people to joke around about racism in a way that still uses the language of “real” racism (employing racial slurs, negative stereotypes, and “ironic” depictions of blackface) or that if you don’t have ill intent when mocking black people’s appearance/speech/mannerisms then it’s fine.  Anything short of a Klan rally is a gray area to these folks.

Despite what people on the right try to whine, you still have freedom of speech, so please, feel free to “make fun” of racism by ironically using slurs or disparaging black people or wearing blackface. Seriously, go ahead, you won’t be arrested. The government won’t censor you. But, nowadays, you might actually face social consequences for such “kidding around” (imagine that), including having your employer decide you’re not a good representative or having friends call you out. It’s up to you to decide if that’s worth it. It’s also worth noting that those “30 Rock” episodes were voluntarily taken down by the show’s creators. You, and a lot of people, are clearly sore about a progressive change in the culture. Tough s**t, I’m sure black people weren’t too happy about all the hilarious joking around about racism, which had the net effect of perpetuating racist imagery (ironic or not).

And the idea that “no one set them down and explained why it's wrong“, please give us a break. The black and anti-racist community has tried over and over to have this conversation only to be dismissed as humorless spoilsports (“it’s just a joke” or “everyone on the left just says everyone is racist”). Seriously, people were told, they just denied there’s a problem, resented the idea that they might have prejudices or racial biases and they rejected the idea that they should have any cultural sensitivity (“sensitivity? How sissy!”).

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

oasisgirl

1 WEEK AGO

This! Plus, this woman was like in her late 40s/early 50s when she did this. You’re telling me a woman that old doesn’t already know blackface is wrong? Bruh, please. Sucks to have a major national paper calling you out over it, but that’s what happens when you wanna party with DC elites.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

vickynwugo

1 WEEK AGO

The ones without sin should cast the first stone.

+++

A child is born with no state of mind

Blind to the ways of mankind.

- The Message

Grandmaster Flash

+++

At what age do children become active contributors to the moral life of the community. The Catholic Church says 7. I am not sure what it is now.

The psychologists are driving us crazy by reducing the age a child becomes self-aware and know right from wrong to as little as 12 or 18 months.

Whatever age you choose for moral maturity one thing is inescapable. Everything is learned from adults.

A child is never born racist or biased or bigoted.

They are sexist in the most positive sort of way - Romantic. Is not watching a 2-year-old hand over his ice cream cone to a 2-year-old girl very beautiful?

The bigotry and bias and racism comes from acquired behavior and learning. Watching adults. Learning from adults. Imitating adults.

The DNA tests we do today is showing us a diverse vista of ancestors. So it might just be possible that the same guy who planted a tree with Strange Fruit is the same guy who crawls to the slave quarters at night to go and father Mulattos.

The children are wiser than adults.

Maybe we are all a little bit racist. It is our mature comportment that separates us from Bob Marley's,

... hypocrites mingling with the good people we meet along the way.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

sfgumshoe

1 WEEK AGO

As described in Vasily Grossman’s “Life & Fate”, during the Stalinist period “failure to denounce” meant 10 years in the Gulag.

Watch out Mr.Toles...

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

crissycat

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

I read WaPo every day. When I read this story I couldn't believe they printed it. It was a garbage attack. For a year and a half  Gruber wanted to punish a private citizen. A woman who was so embarrassed when confronted by Ms Gruber that she left the party and called the host the next day to apologize. She also wanted to punish the host of the party for not ... what? causing a scene at his own very large event? No one has ever indicated Toles even saw Schafer.

It's obvious why he didn't want to tell Gruber who the offending person was, she's been publicly shamed and been fired from her job for her clumsy attempt to stand up to something wrong- black face- by making fun of it. She wasn't supporting the idea or the practice. Standards change and someday Ms Gruber and Ms Prince may find themselves on the wrong side of a poor joke. But no, jokes would require a sense of humor, humility or humanity.

I thoroughly agree that it was in poor taste and that racist troupes should not be used to tear down racist troupes. But nothing has been accomplished here that I, as reader, understand.

LIKEthumb_up24

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Making fun of blackface ... by committing blackface. She's a f--ing hero! People of color should worship her! Why is Gruber so offended? Clearly, it's Gruber who's the villain here. The person who did not do blackface and was offended by blackface is definitely the villain here.

We are truly through the looking glass.

As for nothing being accomplished here, frankly, it's bringing out all the apologists so we can see who you are. YOU may not understand -- clearly! -- but the rest of us are seeing you now.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

You are not standing on the moral high ground you imagine you are.

LIKEthumb_up9

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Or really? Maybe I'm less interested in high ground and more interested in people stopping with this racist shit, cuz I'm sick of it.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

globalguy

1 WEEK AGO

And what's up with your handle, "nibblybits"? At best, boorish. At worst, sexually aggressive and antagonistic.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

arundelxvi

1 WEEK AGO

First, wow- sounds like a horrible party! Mainly this incident, but all over too, extra for  Dana Milbank in "costume" as Brett Kavanaugh with a beer contraption on his head and he thinks that's.. yeah, I'd rather sit on a knife. Sounds ghastly.

Second, I'm reminded why I really , really don't like WaPo.  DC has often been compared to a small town, inward looking and provincial, insular and gossipy and backstabbing, and the Post is its crappy gazette.

(By DC I don't mean the city proper, more like what they call the Beltway. The journalists, politicians, and various others who consider themselves the power elite there, always jockeying for position. It can seem like as small town, Peyton Place, I've long heard.)

LIKEthumb_up10

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

oasisgirl

1 WEEK AGO

All cities are like this to varying degree, not just DC bruh. So go take your pearl clutching somewhere else, maybe Sioux City or Fairbanks.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

arundelxvi

1 WEEK AGO

I'm not clutching any pearls.  Why should I "go" anywhere? I'm not in DC, I live in Southampton. And I'm not the first to note the DC elites' insularity, smug in their proximity to power.  Merely observing that is not pearl-clutching, and not all cities are the nation's capital, obviously.

Sioux City, Fairbanks? No idea.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

disambiguation

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Ethics in video game journalism.

The piece smacks of that calling card for public hit pieces on private individuals who are female, inevitably crafted by a male with a grudge and a willingness to abuse his professional position for the purpose of causing lasting harm.

LIKEthumb_up9

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

mousenrats

1 WEEK AGO

Meanwhile prominent men who had their own little blackface moment keep their jobs.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Yes, the fact that she's female is definitely a good excuse to let her get away with blackface. For sure. The guy writing the story definitely had a grudge against, wait, what was it? Women? People who commit egregious racist mockery? Amos and Andy? Al Jolson? He's definitely got a grudge against something.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Blutarski

1 WEEK AGO

My guess: someone at the Post either heard that right-wing media were sniffing around the story, or feared that would happen: "Washington Post columnists attended blackface party" would make a nice headline for the Breitbart crowd. And so they decided to "get ahead of the story" themselves. They probably told themselves they could tell the story with more nuance and more sympathy for the woman involved than the right would. Of course, "we did it to protect ourselves and she was just collateral damage" doesn't sound good, so they made the "legitimate public interest" argument instead.

LIKEthumb_up16

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

moldenke

1 WEEK AGO

My thought exactly. It’s not hard to find out when someone is sniffing around on a story - especially when you’re a major newspaper with reporters who are plugged into what’s going on in media around them. And we’re in a moment right now where there’s a lot of sniffing around going on as people try to unearth the forgotten sins of others and make them pay for said sins.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

Or... maybe white supremacy isn't funny.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

timb116park1

1 WEEK AGO

Or, maybe, the sources at the Post said they heard Gruber was shopping her story

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

Three police officers in Wilmington, N.C. were just fired for having a conversation about killing black people. Are you thinking that is an over-reaction as well? When are white people going to stop thinking racism is ok? And when are you going to stop making excuses for racist behavior?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ChrisBrooks

1 WEEK AGO

No, of course we are not "all racists".     Racism is a belief, which you can either share or eschew.    You are not programmed to accept it-- that's the childish nonsense of White Fragility, one of the dumbest books of our time.

The real problem here is not the story itself, though obviously it is not important news.   The problem is the hatred that it generated.  You can't make the world better by hating people that made a mistake in life, or indeed, hating them at all.        Hates doesn't "cancel" racism-- it just makes it worse.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

mousenrats

1 WEEK AGO

It's really not childish nonsense. If you're white and you were brought up in the USA, you are racist.  That's because we have all been steeped in a racist culture since birth, and we can scarcely begin to itemize--let alone eliminate--the racist images and assumptions and beliefs embedded in our consciousness.  It's disingenuous to claim otherwise.  But it's not personal, and all of us can take care not to make racist choices.  It's what you do that matters.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dkschrader80

1 WEEK AGO

Just curious... in which country are people brought up not racist? I’ve been all over the world & I’ve seen no culture that practices zero racism.

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

oasisgirl

1 WEEK AGO

We don’t necessarily hate people that make overt, public racist “mistakes.” We just think that they should probably lose their earning power and professional jobs for a while. And leaving an online paper trail for any potential future employers to find is one of the ways to do that.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

redjellydonut

1 WEEK AGO

LOL! You're a nasty piece of work.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

jonathan.kosterlitz

6 DAYS AGO

I look forward to your gracious acceptance of your penance when the mob comes for you after pictures from some stupid thing you did in college or whatever surface right?

Yes, she did something insensitive and stupid  she was publicly embarrassed at the event. But this? This is a scary precedent. NO-ONE is eternally virtuous. We all make errors in judgment. Circumstances have to be taken into account before judgment can be passed.

Your evident delight in having the power to anonymously pass judgment and sentence is disturbing to say the least...

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

Lest you've become the action in which you hate and fight against.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

yvessaintlauren

1 WEEK AGO

(Edited)

The original piece was awfully misguided but so, too, was this one, in not focusing solely on the newsroom and internal failures that led to publication.

The authors ascribe blame to Gruber and Prince, turning their ire towards two young women of color – Puerto Rican and Black, respectively – who are somehow made out to be in a position of power here? “Remarkably,” they write, “the Post twice violated its own editorial policy in an apparent effort to appease Gruber and Prince.”

The fear of Gruber (whether she approached another reporter or, heaven forbid!, tweeted about the Post) that‘s stoked throughout this piece... it just doesn’t sit right. Especially because it’s mentioned that, since the story dropped, the reaction “has included harassment and threats so severe that [Gruber’s] acquired security.” Getting Sullivan vibes off a non-Sullivan piece here and it’s not great.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

pedler

1 WEEK AGO

Even "young women of color" can exercise power and behave badly, and I'd argue that contacting a newspaper in order to blow up a random person's life constitutes behaving badly. No one at the Post would recall or care about this incident if Gruber had not pushed the story. She initiated the process, resulting in harm to someone else; that's power! Her identity does not shield her from criticism or responsibility.

LIKEthumb_up14

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

Responsibility for calling out a racist costume? And because the party was hosted by a famous cartoonist, asking the host to publicly apologize is... what? beyond the pale?

In what world is it OK to wear blackface even after two women of color confront you and tell you they are offended? Why are you defending racism? Is it possible that the white lady who thought it was funny acted in a racist manner? Should she not be called out for being racist? Is it not news that a "liberal" cartoonist is hosting guests in blackface?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

xawcqsky

1 WEEK AGO

So if two women of color are offended by me eating and tell me it's racist, I have to starve?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

If two women of color are offended by you wearing a Nazi band and a white hood... then yes, you are a racist. What does your food have to do with anything?

Maybe you don't understand what white supremacy is. It's the belief that white people, because they are born white, are superior to everyone else. Black face is a way for white people to tell the world they are superior.

Do you think you are superior to black people? This white lady thought it was funny to wear blackface, even when confronted. You are defending racism when you defend her actions. Period.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

odderpotter

6 DAYS AGO

While I agree, there is much blame to go around. WaPo was the scared cannon, but the person who loaded the cannon was Gruber, who nurtured a two-year-old grudge about something that was handled at the time appropriately to specifically out the offending party AND the host of the party. This article easily could have been a smart piece from Gruber's POV about how a stupid and insensitive costume years prior was a problem without naming names, but she doggedly pursued the identity of Schafer and noted that she would shop other outlets if she didn't get her way. Can't support that. That's Trumpian level BS.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

jens

1 WEEK AGO

Ok hi hello, white people? Here’s a good rule of thumb. If ever you find yourself applying anything to your skin designed to mimic the melatonin of another: step away from the makeup and grab some baby oil and like a cotton ball or something.

also: if you are at a party and someone has decided not to heed this advice, discreetly lead them to a bathroom to do the same, explaining that even if they perhaps didn’t mean to, they have done something as hateful and shameful as the person they are mocking. If they don’t seem understand, perhaps point out that you don’t mock Harvey Weinstein by committing sexual assault so maybe not let’s double down on the problem that way.

if on the other hand you stood absolutely silent while sharing a space with someone in blackface, you don’t get to absolve yourselves and others by publishing a 3000 word piece in a national newspaper about it. Everyone at that party who said nothing is in the wrong, not just the moron who wore blackface.  Getting her fired doesn’t make you better people, nor does it take to heart what it means to understand your own privilege.

LIKEthumb_up5

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ChrisBrooks

1 WEEK AGO

I am not a racist, and I think it's possible to be funny while in blackface.  If you don't agree, why should I care?

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

ulan

1 WEEK AGO

I don't care. But you are a racist. Even if you don't think you are.

If she came dressed as Hitler, would you also say she is not an anti-semite? And if you think dressing as Hitler is funny, then yes, you are an anti-semite - even if you don't think you are.

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nighttrainclaudemonet

1 WEEK AGO

So Mel Brooks was an anti-Semite, for making fun of Hitler in *The Producers*?  I guess we better throw Ernst Lubitsch, under the bus, too, as well as Chaplin.  Hmmm, what do those three guys all have in common?  Give me a minute, it'll come to me ...

LIKEthumb_up8

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

Yahzi

1 WEEK AGO

When you conflate sexual assault with embarrassing costumes, you completely lose the thread.

In all cases, intent matters. Her intent was to mock Megan Kelly, a laudable goal. So she flubbed it; so what? Its dumb and people yelled at her and that's the end of it. Nobody gave her a prize, nobody celebrated her, and nobody was frightened by her actions.

When you can't see past the surface to the intent, you have lost the thread.

LIKEthumb_up9

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Consider that you called blackface as merely an "embarrassing costume," as though it's the same as dressing like a pickle.

People aren't required to "see past the surface to the intent" when the surface is an insult and assault, as historically blackface has been to people of color. Whether there has been an offense is not determined by the cluelessness of the offender.

The sad thing with your comment is that you are actually defending the costume (based on intent), which even no one in the article, *including the person who wore it*, is doing.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

redjellydonut

1 WEEK AGO

Careful, now...don't let nibblybits find out who your employer is. They might be getting an angry phone call.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Don't worry. Your co-workers likely already know, and your boss won't care because in general, the higher-ups are white and don't mind a little racism. It's that genteel kind of racism that as long as it's not too loud (eg. showing up in a newspaper) you are still allowed to do or say your little racist things.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

joanie1

1 WEEK AGO

Given that there are a lot worse things a lot of men do to women, yet they're not spotlighted and lose their job, this seems excessive.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

What about-ism. Your argument is, men are terrible and don't get in trouble, so this woman's blackface is ok.

This woman did this in 2018. Why shouldn't she lose her job? I wouldn't want to work with her.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

unmutualanddisharmonious

1 WEEK AGO

Now do  PM Trudeau!

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

j238

1 WEEK AGO

If you're like most people, you've probably done something horribly inappropriate at some time in your life.  In that case, why shouldn't you lose your job?

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Because I didn't show up in front of my co-workers in blackface? But if I do, I will understand completely why people wouldn't want to work with me.

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

krumhornspeaks

1 WEEK AGO

Frankly, I can think of a number of reasons why folks wouldn’t want to work with you. Just another Karen full to the snout with moral superiority and Privilege to Dispense Justice  with such wondrous moral clarity.

- Krumhorn

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

wildlife

1 WEEK AGO

People don't say this enough:  who cares if you 'wouldn't want to work with her?' Why are you more important than she is? From your mean and robotic remarks, I wouldn't want to work with you, either.  Your fanatacism doesn't, and won't, dictate to everyone else.

LIKEthumb_up3

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

houston01979

1 WEEK AGO

Lexie Gruber sounds like a really awful busy body. Shopping a story about a civilian is contemptible.

LIKEthumb_up18

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

oasisgirl

1 WEEK AGO

Yeah. Like what does she get out of ruining a woman’s life like this?

LIKEthumb_up4

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

krumhornspeaks

1 WEEK AGO

Pleasure.  Purifying pleasure.

- Krumhorn

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Wait, are you arguing that civilians can do any offensive thing they want and it shouldn't be criticized because of the obscurity of the offender?

LIKEthumb_up1

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

dkschrader80

1 WEEK AGO

I’m thinking you may actually be Gruber.

LIKEthumb_up6

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

nibblybits

1 WEEK AGO

Good, because to me, she's the f-ing hero of the story.

You, otoh, are like those Germans who didn't agree with the Nazis but didn't want any of them to lose their job over a little white supremacy talk.

LIKEthumb_up2

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

kane1975

1 WEEK AGO

It's not respected .Its a transparent puke of politically correct crap

LIKEthumb_up

REPLYreply

REPORTflag

saxon212

1 WEEK AGO

Are you drunk again.

LIKEthumb_up3