Maybe I'm an idealist, but I'd like to think high government officials would try their hardest to avoid anything that may paint them as racist. Naturally, I'm proven wrong continuously, but this one's a doozie:
The Department of Homeland Security will investigate a Halloween costume party hosted by a top immigration official and attended by a man dressed in a striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and darkened skin make-up, a costume some say is offensive, the department's secretary said.
Read on...
Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and host of the fundraising party, was on a three-judge panel that originally praised the prisoner costume for "originality."
Myers later apologized for "a few of the costumes," calling them "inappropriate and offensive." She said she and other senior managers "deeply regret that this happened."
But the best is the fudging about why the costume wasn't immediately offensive. Take it away Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, Kelly Nantel:
Nantel said one employee, whom she declined to identify, was wearing a black-and-white striped prison outfit, dreadlocks and a skin "bronzer" intended "to make him look African-American." But, she said, it was not immediately apparent that he was wearing the make-up.
"Most people in the room didn't realize he was wearing make-up at all," she said.
But the real question is why Myers couldn't comment directly and explain how something initially lauded as creative turned despicable so quickly.
Ah, somewhere in Hollywood Ted Danson is smiling with the words of George Santayana in his head.
