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Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel resigned the same day that photos of him in blackface at a party (from 14 years ago) were made public.

Blackface is a no-brainer

By Isadora Rangel

Join me if you've grown tired of the politically correct monitoring of white teenagers wearing Chinese-style prom dresses or little girls dressed as Moana, Disney's Polynesian princess.

PC-culture vigilantism has gone too far at times. But there's no explaining away the blackface Halloween costume that Florida's secretary of state wore 14 years ago, mimicking a Hurricane Katrina victim.

Some might say Michael Ertel was young and stupid. Or maybe Democrats are trying to add their liberal spin to an innocent costume.

But Ertel, who resigned after pictures of the costume surfaced Thursday, was no clueless schoolboy. He was 35. The photo was taken at a private party eight months after he was appointed Seminole County supervisor of elections and two months after Katrina devastated New Orleans. Blackface doesn't bode well with the role of protecting the voting rights of people of all races.

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Floridians must still question why it took 14 years for this photo to surface. We don't know who leaked it to the Tallahassee Democrat, but why did that person apparently believe blackface was OK back then? Somebody must have wanted him out.

Whatever nefarious motivations are in play, the fact is the photo is out and provides a great opportunity to discuss what is and isn't acceptable when it comes to race.

A writer said she wouldn't let her daughter dress as Moana because she saw it as cultural appropriation. People have been criticized for wearing Mexican sombreros and mustaches. Megyn Kelly left NBC after defending blackface costumes.

There's no size that fits all in this discussion. But blackface's painful history as a caricature of black Americans makes it a category of its own. The practice began in the 1830s, with white performers who blackened their faces and mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations. It was also used in the 1915 movie "The Birth of a Nation," which celebrated the Ku Klux Klan and portrayed black men as dangerous, lazy, unintelligent and sexually aggressive.

Much like the roots of blackface, Ertel's costume seemed like a mockery of the footage of black women stranded on rooftops during Hurricane Katrina: red lipstick, earrings, a New Orleans Saints bandanna and a T-shirt with "Katrina Victim" written on it.

Now, here's a question for further debate: Had he portrayed a poor white victim from a trailer park, would he have resigned? And what's the difference?

The debate over what's PC-culture overreach is a tough one; what's offensive to me might not be offensive to you. But we have to define lines that should not be crossed. Blackface is a no-brainer.

Isadora Rangel is the public affairs and engagement editor at Florida Today, where this column first appeared. You can follow her on Twitter: @IsadoraRangel2.

What others are saying

Tallahassee Democrat, editorial: "Michael Ertel’s forced resignation is unfortunate, both for him and for Florida. He'll recover, but he will always be known as the guy with the charcoal on his cheeks and the balloon boobs. And Florida lost the services of, by all accounts, a good public servant who — on at least one occasion we know of — found a truly tasteless, offensive way to amuse his friends at a long ago social gathering."

Sue Carlton, Tampa Bay Times: "Perhaps Ertelgate is but a blip on the radar at a moment when America is busy being politically on fire. But could it come at a worse time for the Republican Party in terms of race? ... Just recently, Republicans had to rebuke one of their own, Congressman Steve King of Iowa, for questioning in an interview how the terms 'white nationalist' and 'white supremacist' had somehow 'become offensive.' Here in Florida, it took the will of the voters in November to end Republican Gov. Rick Scott's draconian practice of failing to restore the right to vote to felons who had done their time — many of them black."

The Palm Beach Post, editorial: "It's a sad commentary that the race-baiting that threaded through Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign brought him victory, not the rejection it deserved. But now he is governor of the entire state, one with 3.3 million African-American ... residents, and he must make clear that racial insults aren’t just some pesky distraction. They're an affront to essential human dignity, and DeSantis must say — and show — that no such thing will be tolerated in this state."

What our readers are saying

So in 2004 the movie "White Chicks" was released. The plot of the movie is two black guys disguising themselves as white females. Is that racist as well?

— Lloyd Vingette

Should Michael Ertel not have done it? Correct. But at this rate, Little Bo-Peep could not be elected or stay in office for long. If we want successful people to run for office, then we can expect someone to find something in their past that someone finds offensive. I doubt that Alexander Hamilton could serve an anyone's Cabinet today, and Thomas Jefferson probably could not be elected.

— Dave Shepherd

If it were just the blackface (meaning face paint) and the outfit he was wearing, I hear what people are saying. People do make stupid decisions that perhaps they wouldn't have made in hindsight. Putting the words "Katrina Victim" on the shirt now leaves little to the imagination on what his intent was, considering this happened shortly after the hurricane.

— Michael Russell

Yep, the guy who fights for voters' rights and pushes against purging voter rolls makes a minor mistake 14 years ago — and he can't evolve his views because he's not a Democrat.

— Michael Cody

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