Woman sacked for calling Michelle Obama an ‘ape in heels’ then reinstated, loses job again
The woman who caused a storm of controversy and was sacked after she wrote on Facebook that Michelle Obama is an “ape in heels”, and later got her job back, has been sacked again.
The message was posted by Pamela Ramsey Taylor, who ran a not for profit group in Clay County.
She wrote: “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.”
Despite that Taylor was sacked from the Clay County Development Corporation in November following the post, she was reinstated back in December, according to a letter from the woman who took over her role, Leslie McGlothlin.
But after West Virginia reviewed its contracts with the nonprofit, Taylor has been removed once and for all.
West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s office said and agreement had been met with the organisation including adherence to nondiscrimination policies.
“Following the state’s request for specific assurances that the CCDC is following anti-discrimination policies, we have been assured that Pamela Taylor has been removed from her position as CCDC director,” Tomblin’s office said in a statement.
Responding to the original post, the mayor of Clay, Beverly Whaling wrote: “Hust made my day Pam”.
Whaling resigned, and the city council accepted her stepping down without a vote on the issue.
The council planned to quickly replace Whaling for the three years remaining on her term.
Jason Hubbard, a council member, called the post “horrific”, and said: “racial intolerance isn’t what this community is about.”
“Please don’t judge the entire community for one or two individual acts,” Hubbard added.
The town of 491 residents has a pretty white makeup.
According to a census from 2010, Clay County has no African American residents, and 98 percent of its 9,000 residents are white.
But despite the small populations, respectively, the tweet caught the eye of many on the internet after local station WSAZ3 reported on the message.
Within days, nearly a hundred thousand people had signed a petition to have both the women sacked.
But Taylor told WSAZ3 that she realised her post could be “interpreted as racist, but in no way was intended to be”. She said she was rating the first lady and upcoming first lady by attractiveness, and that it had no bearing on race.
She also said she was considering suing individuals for slander.
A statement from former Mayor Whaling said: “My comment was not intended to be racist at all”. She apologised for the comment “getting out of hand.”
“I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I’m not of any way racist!” she added.
