How original of you.

Apology From Agency Head for Costume

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top immigration official acknowledged on Thursday that she should not have praised an employee who wore an escaped prisoner costume to an agency event on Halloween.

Julie Myers, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, offered the mea culpa in a letter to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

The senator had asked Myers to answer several questions about the costume worn to a charity fundraiser at the agency's headquarters.

The employee wore dreadlocks, dark makeup and prison stripes. Myers and two other managers awarded him "most original costume" and Myers posed for a photo with him.

"Although I was not aware at the time of the contest that the employee disguised his skin color, I believe that it was inappropriate for me to recognize any individual wearing an escaped prisoner costume," Myers said.

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I do not have either the energy or the breath to be angry about this story. Instead I am annoyed. But I am not annoyed for the reasons you may think.

It is not the fact that ICE employee dressed in black face dark make up, dreadlocks, and a prisoner's uniform for a Halloween party.

It is not the fact that the ICE Director posed for pictures with the employee.

It is not the fact that the ICE Director, the person responsible for implementing immigration policies, did not realize that someone in dark make up, dreadlocks, and a prisoner's uniform just might be an offensive costume until somebody told her.

It is not the fact that the employees who told the ICE Director that the costume was offensive are being criticized for being too sensitive.

I am annoyed because the employee was awarded a prize by a three judge panel for an "original" costume.

Ladies and Gentlemen, when is blackface original? D.W. Griffin had characters in blackface in "Birth of a Nation." Al Jolson was in blackface in "The Jazz Singer." Every Halloween, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Black History Month, Spring Break, Summer Holiday, somebody in America puts on blackface, photos/video are taken, it's posted to Facebook or MySpace or YouTube, the general public finds out, and there's a rushed, mumbled, sometimes tearful apology.

A text message. An iPhone. A Facebook page. The flu vaccine. A NetFlix envelope. Those are original costumes. Dressing in blackface and a prisoner's uniform is not an original costume.

Please do not make me say this again. I really do not have the time for it.