Florida Secretary of State resigns after Halloween blackface images emerge
31 replies, posted
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2019/01/24/new-secretary-state-ertel-dressed-blackface-halloween-2005/2649161002/
Michael Ertel, the newly appointed Secretary of State of Gov. Ron DeSantis, has resigned after photos emerged of him posing as a Hurricane Katrina victim in blackface at a private
Halloween party 14 years ago.
The photos obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat were shown to the Governor's Office on Thursday morning. Hours later it issued a statement. "The governor accepted Secretary
Ertel's resignation," the Governor's Office said.
The photo was taken in 2005, eight months after Ertel was appointed Seminole County supervisor of elections and two months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.
After the Democrat texted the photos to him last week, Ertel, 49, identified himself as the white man in blackface and red lipstick, wearing earrings and a New Orleans Saints bandanna,
and falsies under a purple T-shirt that had "Katrina Victim" written on it.
The photos are the sole blemish on a seemingly spotless public career, highlighted by a record of increasing voter registration and making the elections office more accessible to the
public. Ertel also has won international awards for his plans to restore voter confidence and trust in the elections system.
Not just blackface, but parodying a tragedy in which many perished? Wow...
It's just so... poorly done? Like he just threw together some random stuff for a last minute costume.
As a Katrina survivor, I just wanna say, what a fucking dick. How would you like it if your state suffered a terrible tragedy and I, not even 2 months later, start shitting all over your tragedy?
Youd think he’d have more self awareness than that considering Florida also suffered at the hands of Katrina.
Why? What compels a person to do this.
Racism
I bet that was just a blackout basketball game, nothing to see here.
The photos are the sole blemish on a seemingly spotless public career, highlighted by a record of increasing voter registration and making the elections office more accessible to the
public. Ertel also has won international awards for his plans to restore voter confidence and trust in the elections system.
See this is what's fucking confusing to me, if he did this shit and then went into office to push racist, hateful policies that'd be par for the course for American politics. But who the fuck does something that offensive and hateful, and then goes into politics and actually does a good job?
It's very possible that he had a change of heart somewhere down the line, this almost happened 15 years ago and a lot of stuff can change then.
He also might just have an incredibly shitty sense of humour.
I realize it's incredibly shitty but I don't like this trend of lambasting people for mistakes made 14 years ago. Would you afford yourself the same treatment if you were in a similar situation?
Honestly if I had done this I would never stop being ashamed of myself until I went to the grave.
Yeah he's one of the few non-terrible Republicans in the state, and given his record this just seems like a really terrible sense of humor than outright racism (though there's definitely something implicit as we can now see).
Hopefully he's not replaced by some absolute idiot like we always get
I can't imagine ever getting offended over this. Why do people get so fucking offended over stupid harmless jokes that weren't supposed to be shared publicly anyway?
Whether or not something was intended to be shared publicly doesn't excuse the action; everyone knows wearing black face in the 21st century is a fucking stupid thing to do.
Yeah sure, except this was 14 years ago in a time before people started getting triggered over stupid meaningless bullshit.
Wow I love 2019 - can't even have a halloween costume without offending everyone.
The very concept of this being so stigmatized is stupid. What even is this. Are we really making up for the mistakes of the past with this sort of reaction? Shitting on anyone doing anything that even closely resembles a hint of negative historical events is not the way to go.
????
Blackface wasn't reviled in 2005??
Not in Europe anyway.
I doubt people would have cared enough to have him fired 14 years ago, honestly. Maybe reprimanded, but not fired.
Not being a douchebag wasn't invented this decade.
I didn't realize Florida, much less the United States, existed in Europe
You must have somehow completely avoided learning about the US's turbulent history with race and why people would find issue with a depiction that was historically used to mock or get a rise out of black people.
Yeah sure, but again. He made a joke in private. He wasn't trying to spread a message or anything.
Have you never made harmless offensive jokes with your friends?
Yeah I don't think most people dress in loaded, racist caricatures in their spare time
This isn't a normal thing. Don't pretend like it is.
And i'm sure most people don't dress up as ghosts in their spare time either, but it's halloween, come mon dude.
there is no excuse to dress up as a racist caricature, period.
And? It being Halloween makes racist caricatures okay?
So you agree he was rightfully fired then for something that he did 14 years ago in his spare time that doesn't seem to affect his work at all? He seemed to be one of the rare good republicans, but that should just be ignored because you (not you specifically, but you get what i mean) can't get over a mistake done over a decade ago.
He dressed up in blackface, something with a great deal of history in the US, in mockery of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating storms the US has faced in recent history that took many lives and homes, and he did this only 2 months after the fact.
