FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Identity

State Court Officials Accused of Donning Blackface for 'Prison-Themed' Party

"These are individuals that are inextricably a part of the court system, and they are making a mockery of people who are incarcerated."

Last week, an ABC news affiliate in California published photos from a 2016 Judicial Council Halloween party that show several court staff dressed as characters from the Netflix show Orange Is the New Black and decorating their cubicles to look like prison cells. One man, wearing a wig, appeared to be imitating Sophia Burset, the transgender inmate played by Laverne Cox.

ABC 7 reported that the employees additionally darkened their faces to portray black prisoners, and some of the staff dressed in prison jumpsuits won a "best decorations" award for their efforts.

Advertisement

Photo via ABC 7

Since the photos surfaced, the Judicial Council, which is made up of legal professionals charged with "ensuring the consistent, independent, impartial, and accessible administration of justice," has been criticized by the NAACP and California judges for mocking people of color, transgender inmates, and incarcerated people in general.

"Here you've got the image of people who work for and support the courts who are dressed in prison garb, darkening their faces, depicting a prison setting where disproportionately those people who are incarcerated are people of color," Michael Roosevelt, an employee at the Judicial Council who was hired to develop bias education programs for court employees and judges, told the outlet.

"It does concern me because they have adopted in their minds, their spirits, the prison culture," Reverend Brown, who is on the board of the NAACP, said of the employees in the pictures. "They don't see these prisoners as being human beings, they see it as being a fun thing."

Judge Maryanne Gilliard, the director of the Alliance of California Judges, told ABC 7, "There is nothing funny to be made of lives being destroyed by crime either as a defendant or as a victim."

The outrage prompted the California Legislative Black Caucus to open up an investigation into the incident. "This is a stain on all of them," Chris Holden, an member of the California State Assembly and the chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, told Broadly.

Read more: Why the Dutch Holiday Tradition of Blackface Won't Go Away

The Caucus is concerned about diversity in the Judicial Council and has asked the policymaking body to provide that information. "These are individuals that are inextricably a part of the court system, and they are making a mockery of people who are incarcerated. What this says to the public is obscene. You have people of color who always feel like they are not getting a fair representation, and the Council is playing into that norm of how people of color are treated by the judicial system," Holden said.

The Judicial Council has taken disciplinary action for the party's insensitive theme and the administrative director of the Judicial Council staff, Martin Hoshino, issued an apology. But the Council denied that anyone in attendance was in blackface.

Holden says he hopes the Caucus' meeting with the Council on Wednesday will bring more insight. "We're meeting with the Judicial Council this week to try to understand how something like this could happen and understand what the culture is," he said.