This Woman Was Fired for Dressing Up as Beyonce in Blackface for Halloween
A Missouri woman thought it would be a wise decision to wear blackface and dress up as Beyonce for Halloween. But it was not wise. It was bad, very bad—so bad, in fact, it got her fired from her job as a nurse at a Kansas City hospital.
AOL reports that Shelbi Elliott-Heenan was terminated from her job earlier this week after photos of the woman wearing makeup to darken her face as part of her Beyonce Halloween costume circulated online, went viral and made their way to hospital officials at Saint Luke's Health System, where she formerly worked.
On Monday (October 29), the hospital released the following statement regarding Elliott-Heenan's firing, condemning the costume as going against their commitment to "diversity and inclusion":
“While it is against Saint Luke’s policy to comment on specific personnel matters, we can confirm that this individual is no longer a Saint Luke’s employee. Saint Luke’s is deeply committed to our culture of diversity and inclusion. It is fundamental to who we are as an organization and we vigorously protect it on behalf of all our patients and employees and expect those who represent us to do the same.”
According to AOL, Elliott-Heenan also uploaded a racially offensive photo of herself in the costume to her since-deactivated Facebook account.
The image showed her posing with another man—believed to be her husband, Jasmond Heenan—who was dressed up as Jay-Z, also in blackface.
Elliott-Heenan's reported firing comes in the wake of another blackface-related controversy.
Megyn Kelly, who last week defended blackface as "okay just as long as you were dressing as a character," was recently let go from her position on the NBC talk show Megyn Kelly Today.
She has since apologized for making the statement.