A South Carolina sheriff’s captain was forced to issue an apology after being photographed wearing blackface as part of her Bob Marley Halloween costume.
Captain Melanie Thornburg, of the Gaston County Sheriff's Office, insisted that she never intended to offend anyone, and that she was unaware of the historical significance of wearing blackface.
Thornburg, who is white, landed in hot water after a photo surfaced on social media showing the sheriff's official, who is white, wearing a dreadlocked wig, a T-shirt emblazoned with a marijuana a leaf and the word 'High,' and dark paint on her face.
The law enforcement official explained in her statement that she was searching for a last-minute idea for a Halloween getup over the weekend, and since she already had the wig and the shirt, she decided to go as the legendary Jamaican reggae singer/songwriter Bob Marley.
'I didn't do it out of disrespect,' Thornburg told the local paper Gaston Gazette.' And I apologize to anyone who took offense.’
In her mea culpa, Thornburg stressed that had she known what the act of artificially darkening one's face stood for, she would have never done it.
Blackface became popular in the mid-1800s, when white actors taking part in minstrel shows would paint their faces to play plantation slaves and free blacks, who were portrayed as foolish, ignorant or menacing.
'I wouldn't have ever tried to mock anyone,' said Thornburg.
Both Thornburg's superior, Gaston County Sheirff Alan Cloninger, and Gaston NAACP chapter president Chris Thomason have accepted the captain's explanation and apology.
‘As long as she didn’t do anything derogatory toward any person or race that was meant in a harmful or malicious way, that’s the way I look at it,’ Cloninger said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ists-didn-t-know-offensive.html#ixzz3qME72PJK
Captain Melanie Thornburg, of the Gaston County Sheriff's Office, insisted that she never intended to offend anyone, and that she was unaware of the historical significance of wearing blackface.
Thornburg, who is white, landed in hot water after a photo surfaced on social media showing the sheriff's official, who is white, wearing a dreadlocked wig, a T-shirt emblazoned with a marijuana a leaf and the word 'High,' and dark paint on her face.
The law enforcement official explained in her statement that she was searching for a last-minute idea for a Halloween getup over the weekend, and since she already had the wig and the shirt, she decided to go as the legendary Jamaican reggae singer/songwriter Bob Marley.
'I didn't do it out of disrespect,' Thornburg told the local paper Gaston Gazette.' And I apologize to anyone who took offense.’
In her mea culpa, Thornburg stressed that had she known what the act of artificially darkening one's face stood for, she would have never done it.
Blackface became popular in the mid-1800s, when white actors taking part in minstrel shows would paint their faces to play plantation slaves and free blacks, who were portrayed as foolish, ignorant or menacing.
'I wouldn't have ever tried to mock anyone,' said Thornburg.
Both Thornburg's superior, Gaston County Sheirff Alan Cloninger, and Gaston NAACP chapter president Chris Thomason have accepted the captain's explanation and apology.
‘As long as she didn’t do anything derogatory toward any person or race that was meant in a harmful or malicious way, that’s the way I look at it,’ Cloninger said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ists-didn-t-know-offensive.html#ixzz3qME72PJK
