THE JAZZ STINGER

Anti-Gay Politician Dons Blackface, Apologizes And Insults LGBTs

dov-hikindNew York Assemblyman Dov Hikind decided to dress up as a 1970s basketball star for Purim. So he donned he an afro wig, sunglasses, an orange jersey and a complete lack of common sense.

Hikind went in full-on blackface—with the help of a professional makeup artist, no less—and explained his choice to the Observer:

“I was just, I think, I was trying to emulate, you know, maybe some of these basketball players. Someone gave me a uniform, someone gave me the hair of the actual, you know, sort of a black basketball player,” Mr. Hikind explained. “It was just a lot of fun. Everybody just had a very, very good time and every year I do something else. … The fun for me is when people come in and don’t recognize me.”

As the holiday involves elaborate costumes, Hikind, who is an Orthodox Jew, didn’t find anything wrong with his get-up. The New York Post reports:

Earlier today, a defiant Hikind said his costume wasn’t wrong, insisting he doesn’t have a “prejudiced bone” in his body. “Yes, I wore a costume on Purim and hosted a party. Most of the people who attended also wore costumes,” Hikind wrote on his blog today. “Everywhere that Purim was being celebrated, people wore costumes. It was Purim. People dress up.”

If Hikind doesn’t have a prejudiced bone in his body, he must have had it recently removed: In 2007, Hikind likened gay marriage to incest; in 2010 he attempted to have gay Holocaust victims banned from a planned memorial in his district; and in 2011 he mocked New York’s pending same-sex marriage legislation with a picture of Lady Gaga.

So it should come as no surprise that Hikind offered a half-assed apology, claiming he was sorry if anyone was offended—and then immediately offended the LGBT community.

“If I was doing it all over again? I would look at, you know, additional alternatives,” he told WSNR’s Zev Brenner, “because my real objective is — it’s not about being a black person or Indian. Maybe I would be a gay person—by the way, would that be okay, Zev? If I played a gay person next year?”

We’re gonna say “no.”

h/t: Joe. My. God.

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