PHOTO: GOP Rep. Mike Lawler (NY-17) holds a press conference on Aug. 23, 2023 in Nanuet. | John Meore/The Journal News.
Lawler had previously apologized for the malicious FaceBook post, explaining that as a student he’d been paying ‘genuine homage’ to the late Michael Jackson whom he’d considered a boyhood hero.
By Chris McKenna | The Journal News
The emergence last week of an 18-year-old photo of Rep. Mike Lawler wearing blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume while in college has spurred conflicting reactions from Black leaders in his district.
NAACP leaders representing the group’s Spring Valley and Nyack chapters and the mid-Hudson/Westchester region condemned the 2006 incident and accused the Rockland County Republican of showing a “pattern of racial insensitivity.”
But a group of Black supporters of Lawler countered with a statement dismissing the episode as “immature” but harmless, and praising Lawler for supporting the Black community and being “willing to bring people together to solve problems” during his nearly two years in office.
The reactions came after the New York Times [on Thursday published] screenshots it obtained of photos [it said] were previously posted on Facebook.
They showed a 20-year-old Lawler with his face darkened by makeup while dressed as his boyhood idol for a Halloween party as a sophomore at Manhattan College in the Bronx.
Lawler issued a statement apologizing if anyone was offended and explaining that he was paying tribute to an entertainer he had worshipped since childhood.
In a CNN interview Thursday night, he argued It couldn’t “truly be construed as blackface” since he had no intent to disparage, but said he understood why people could be offended and repeated his apology.
The photos resurfaced a month before the freshman [Congressman] will square off against former Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones [who is Black] for New York’s 17th Congressional District seat on Nov. 5.
[The] Hudson Valley district is a key battleground in this year’s clash for control of the narrowly divided House, currently in GOP hands.
NAACP leaders Wilbur Aldridge, Nicole Hines and Willie Trotman said in their response that they “would like to inform the Congressman that he in fact was wearing black face and that we and the community are OFFENDED.”
They also took Lawler to task for failing to denounce racially insensitive remarks that others recently made to him in two separate forums — a roundtable discussion and a radio interview.
Lawler’s campaign reacted with a press release on Saturday that gave a supportive statement from Ramapo Deputy Supervisor Brendel Logan-Charles and a letter signed by Logan-Charles and eight other Black elected officials and activists in the 17th District.
Logan-Charles called Lawler “a model member of Congress” who has “conducted himself with integrity and has actually sought to get to know the communities he represents.”
“The fact that, as a young man Congressman Lawler Idolized Michael Jackson and paid homage to his boyhood idol at a Halloween costume party bears no resemblance to the racist black face tropes of generations ago,” read the group letter.
“One was an immature way to honor a legendary performer, while the other was a disgusting display of hate and bigotry.”
Jones, who is Black, criticized his opponent for the blackface episode in an interview on Saturday, saying Lawler should have known the practice was unacceptable.
He pointed out that Lawler condemned Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in 2019 when a photo of two people — one in blackface, the other dressed in Ku Klux Klan hood and robes — was found on Northam’s 1984 yearbook page from medical school.
“I’m still horrified by it,” he said of Lawler’s photo. “It was clear in the year 2006 that blackface is deeply offensive. So obviously there’s no excuse for it.”
He faulted Lawler for a Friday radio interview in which WABC host Sid Rosenberg defended Lawler’s Halloween costume, saying it had “nothing to do with minstrel shows” and Lawler shouldn’t apologize for it.
Lawler instead apologized again and told Rosenberg — to his dismay — that he understood “the outrageous problem” with the demeaning history of blackface. ##