U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said he was sorry Thursday after the New York Times obtained photos of him wearing blackface about two decades ago at a college Halloween costume party where he dressed as Michael Jackson.
The images emerged as Lawler, a first-term Republican, is locked in a competitive reelection fight for his congressional seat in New York’s Hudson Valley.
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Lawler described himself as a lifelong Jackson superfan who was attempting to pay homage to the pop star.
The Times reported that the photo was taken in 2006 when Lawler was 20. In an image posted by the newspaper, Lawler can be seen wearing a red jacket and posing with an outstretched arm in one of Jackson’s signature dance moves. He used bronzer to darken his face.
Before we get started, was this a game of D&D and was he playing a magic user, baby?
blackface
Michael Jackson
Something isn’t adding up
-Republican
-apologizes
Nothing is adding up here.
great. now his popularity will increase with republicans
The Times reported that the photo was taken in 2006 when Lawler was 20.
How was it that I was 29 in 2006 and yet I knew full well that blackface is fucking racist and don’t ever wear it even if you’re racist because there’s a thing called the internet while this dumbfuck didn’t?
I was in high school in the 90’s and I knew it was wrong. Nobody gets a pass beyond the 60’s.
GOP don’t come to their politics because they’re intelligent and thoughtful.
I realize I shouldn’t be, but I still get surprised at how fucking stupid these idiots are.
I was 23 at that time. Went to college and was in Lambda Chi fraternity at a pretty popular school. Went to tons of parties for about a decade. Never once even heard or saw black face ever in my life until recently hearing about all these politicians that did it. It’s so bizarre.
I don’t ever remember seeing any blackface in college. Did I see bigoted stereotypical bullshit regarding Mexicans and Indigenous Americans? Absolutely. But even in Indiana, I didn’t see blackface.
Also, I used to emcee comedy nights at a local club back then, so I saw a lot of college students in Halloween costumes. I don’t ever remember blackface. I do remember seeing a group of girls dressed as all the main characters from The Dukes of Hazzard get up and sing Jesse’s Girl at the karaoke night that came after the comedy night ended. That was fun.
Back in the 70s my mom went to a Halloween party as Aunt Jemima. It was in poor taste even back THEN.
College was awesome without widespread internet use or camera phones. Feel bad for the kids now.
Regarding Mexicans, my Mexican stepmother sent me this video lol
Your stepmother watches Prager U? I’m sorry.
Pretty sure she sent us a Facebook version so I just searched for it.
Oh, he knew.
Do you really give a fuck he painted his face 18 years ago?
Yes. Because unless he later came out and apologized and demonstrated that he’s changed then it speaks to his character.
From the thumbnail you’d think he was wearing Vanceface. Zoom in, remain unconvinced.
It’s a distinction without a difference, I guess.
I honestly thought it was Vance at first.
They like beards because it hides the double chins and makes them look “masculine and alpha.”
I was going to say something in defence of beards. But after looking at the picture, you are absolutely right.
I don’t think these double chin hiders that look like they were drawn on with a sharpie count as beards
The pic
I have seen multiple “news” articles today about photos where they don’t include the photo. What the fuck is going on with these news sites?!? If there is a photo lead with that.
Ok but he did kinda go for it
It’s not tasteful, but you’re right
Looks much closer to Freddy Mercury really
Either way— super fucking racist
He could have easily been Freddie Mercury, but then he decided to go to extra trouble to be racist.
Freddy Mercury was Parsi Indian.
“Frddy’s” real name was Farrokh Bulsara. His parents were Indian/Persian.
Regardless, no blackface needed.
Guess his party affiliation without opening his link. You’ll be correct.
Where in the United States was blackface OK in the 90s and 2000s? That kinds of photos seem to turn up pretty regularly.
Backwoods areas and Christian/Libertarian Universities that catered to conservative students.
Nowhere. Nowhere was it acceptable.
If they did acceptable things, they wouldn’t have been republican in the first place.
It was a time before everyone had a camera with them 24/7. The racists didn’t have to worry as much
New York’s Hudson Valley apparently.
It’s a patchwork of red and blue here, to be sure. Puzzlingly, Lawler apparently attended Manhattan College. You can get away with an awful lot in NYC, but I don’t think I would go out on the street like this (ignoring for a second how ignorant and offensive he demonstrated himself to be).
It’s been an annoying race to receive all the mailings about and I hope he loses swiftly so he can go back to ranting about immigrants or whatever scary, manufactured nonsense in private.
he’s sorry he got caught
I’m glad there aren’t any photos of me when I was 20
There are plenty of photos of me at 20. And I’m doing dumb shit in plenty of them. I’m doing dumb racist shit in precisely zero of them.
It really didn’t take any effort to not be racist.
I will say growing up where I did it took some effort, but not that much. Once you know whose racist and not to be listened to it’s a lot easier. It’s that time before you figure that out that’s dangerous.
We were fucking abhorrent and the entire point was to show your friend group you trusted them.
going to this much effort isn’t that of course but America likes to dial these things up to 11 so who knows, could be a Skull and Bones thing.
lol. Of course, ®.
