The director of a West Virginia development group and a mayor are under scrutiny after a racist post about first lady Michelle Obama caused a backlash and prompted calls on social media for both women to be fired.
Clay County Development Corp. director Pamela Ramsey Taylor made the
post following Donald Trump's election as president, saying: "It will be
refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels."
Clay Mayor Beverly Whaling responded: "Just made my day Pam."
The post, first reported by WSAZ-TV, was shared hundreds of times on social media before it was deleted.
The Facebook pages of Taylor and Whaling couldn't be found Monday. A
call to the Clay County Development Corp. went unanswered and Whaling
didn't immediately return a telephone message.
An online petition seeks to remove Whaling and Taylor. The nonprofit
development group provides services to elderly and low-income residents
in Clay County. It is funded through state and federal grants and local
fees.
It is not affiliated with the town of Clay, which is about 50 miles east of Charleston.
Owens Brown, director of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People's West Virginia chapter, is among those calling for the
removal of both women.
"I feel so it's unfortunate that people still have these racist
undertones," Brown said. "Unfortunately, this is a reality that we are
dealing with in America today. There's no place for these types of
attitudes in our state."
African-Americans make up about 4 percent of West Virginia's 1.8 million residents, according to the U.S. Census.
About 77 percent of Clay County residents supported Trump in the Nov. 8
election. In 2012, President Barack Obama received 31 percent of the
county vote when Republican Mitt Romney easily carried the state.
The town council has a previously scheduled meeting Tuesday.
Last week in Kentucky, Republican Dan Johnson defeated incumbent
Democrat Linda Belcher in Bullitt County despite a series of Facebook
posts that depicted Barack Obama and his wife as monkeys. Republican
officials, including likely new House Speaker Jeff Hoover, had called on
Johnson to drop out of the race. But Hoover declared last week that
Johnson would be "welcome in our caucus."
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