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In the Great Cultural Revolution of 2020, even attempts to mock perceived racial offenses can lead to one being canceled.
As the cleansing of American society to meet the fleeting standards of the intolerant left begins in earnest, where even George Washington is no longer safe, a Halloween party from 2018 was given feature-length status by The Washington Post in an effort to shame a white woman for her racial sins.
The 3000-plus word article is more about proving how woke the newspaper is by giving voice to two women of color who took offense to a costume meant to mock former Fox News host Megyn Kelly.
The setting was a Halloween party hosted by Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles, and the women who failed to find humor in the jest were guests named Lexie Gruber, who is of Puerto Rican descent, and her friend Lyric Prince, who is African American.
According to Gruber, she and her friend confronted the woman at the party.
“In 2018, I attended a Halloween party at your home,” Gruber informed Toles in an email. “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.”
More from the Post on the woman and her costume:
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.”
Citing reflection after the death of George Floyd, Gruber explained that the incident “weighed heavily on my heart — it was abhorrent and egregious,” and urged Toles to identify the woman from his party.
“I wanted to know who this woman is … What impact does she have on society?” she wrote. “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.”
Toles initially told Gruber that he wouldn’t identify Schafer, only to have the “white privilege” card played against him.
“Hiding her name is a deliberate act of white privilege and cowardice, not friendship,” Gruber replied.
Gruber also questioned any remorse from Shafer being genuine, when Toles offered to connect the two women.
“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 demanded.
The crazy thing about the story is that Shafer is a died-in-the-wool Trump-hating liberal.
She told the Post she knew she made a “terrible mistake” the moment she arrived at the party and “spent many hours in therapy talking about ‘how carelessly I behaved. I’m deeply ashamed.'”
Following the party, Schafer reportedly emailed Toles and his wife to apologize.
“With this story, they’ll get the public humiliation they want, but it won’t foster any real dialogue between us,” she told the newspaper. “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.”
Keep in mind that Shafer is not a public official, such as Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam:
Same newspaper..just shameful pic.twitter.com/skuLuiXHy0
— AV (@verma_30) June 18, 2020
Washington Examiner executive editor Seth Mandel hit the nail on the head when he stated in a tweet: “What an utterly atrocious article, in which everyone involved acknowledges they’re just out to ruin a life and WaPo gleefully underwrites it.”
What an utterly atrocious article, in which everyone involved acknowledges they're just out to ruin a life and WaPo gleefully underwrites it: https://t.co/pyECAZ3Pgk pic.twitter.com/3BJbqrvwY7
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) June 18, 2020
Mandel was far from alone in his condemnation:
A 3,000-word, two-byline investigation informing you that a woman you have never heard of, who is not a public figure (until now!), wore an offensive Halloween costume two years ago at a WaPo cartoonist's party.https://t.co/OZM8aI58Al
— Please Preorder "The Quick Fix," Out April 6 (@jessesingal) June 18, 2020
WaPo should explain why it published a feature about an offensive costume a non-public figure wore to a private party two years ago and consider an editor's note that it did not meet the paper's standards, which declare that "fairness includes relevance." https://t.co/CatQNXOfBo
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) June 18, 2020
This article has no reason to exist and no one involved in it comes out looking good, including the authors and publication (all of whom I respect). But perhaps it will have the unintended consequence of shocking some papers into not doing this ever again. https://t.co/SRqjkScN0M
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) June 18, 2020
Was this @washingtonpost story intended to be a spoof of our culture? Did they really invest all this Investigatory resource on this piece to shame this average person who holds no discernible power? Have we come to this? https://t.co/W8Sq60SRjP
— Patrick Gaspard (@patrickgaspard) June 19, 2020
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