Virginia Sherriff’s Deputy Reassigned to Court Duty After Dressing in Blackface

Formerly Served as D.A.R.E. Officer

A sheriff’s deputy has been reassigned to court duty after a photo surfaced of her dressed in blackface on Halloween sparked outrage in Virginia.

Jean Browning, who works for the York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, was criticized by the York-James City-Williamsburg (YJCW) branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) after the photo surfaced from a private Halloween party this week.

“For decades, blackface has been synonymous with hate, degradation, and bigotry,” the chapter wrote. “Originally, white actors wore tattered and worn clothing, applied burnt cork to blacken their skin, and used soot to create the appearance of wider, fuller lips to imitate the appearance of African Americans. White performers profited from blackface by mocking black behavior and culture and promoting false stereotypes that African Americans were lazy, destitute, and unintelligible.”

Browning, who until the reassignment worked in the school system as an officer of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, dressed as U.S. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and attended an October party with her boyfriend, who dressed as Donald Trump.

The photo can be seen below, via The Root:

As the Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily reported:

Deputy Jean Browning will return to her previous role at the York County Courthouse. Sheriff J.D. “Danny” Diggs declined to refer to the action as disciplinary, and said, “the intent did not rise to the level of termination.”

Instead, Diggs said Browning’s move to another position was a “corrective” action.

The sheriff’s office came under scrutiny Wednesday after a local NAACP branch released a statement condemning Browning’s costume choice.

“The combined intent of the couple was to convey the message of how funny it would be for two political figures that were at odds with each other to go to a party together,” Sherriff Diggs defended the decision to the outlet. He further noted that it was Browning’s intent to “portray Wilson as a political celebrity.”

Ahead of Halloween this year, Trump and Wilson were frequently at odds. The president spent days criticizing Wilson for exposing his abysmal response to slain Army Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in Niger.

“Browning has been a deputy for 20-years and a D.A.R.E. Officer for 10-years with 9 Letters of Commendation,” Diggs defended his decision not to terminate or punish Browning. “She has never been accused of any type of racial transgression and is known as a kind and caring person who would do anything for anyone.”

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H/T: The Root

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