Black Female Firefighter Suing City in Florida Over Mural Depicting Her as White (VIDEO)

The first Black female deputy fire chief in Boynton Beach, Florida is suing the city after she was erased from a mural honoring the city’s firefighters and replaced with a white person.
Latosha Clemons, along with former fire chief Glenn Joseph, who is Black, was replaced by a white face when the mural was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting last summer. The incident reportedly resulted in two city employees losing their job.
“Who made these changes and why did they make these changes?” Clemons’ attorney asked at a news conference last summer, NBC News reported.
“I wanted little Black girls to look at that mural and know they can have their face on a mural,” said Clemons at the time. She was the only Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach until her retirement in 2020. Clemens served the community for 20 years.
“Being depicted as white was not only a false presentation of Clemons, it was also a depiction which completely disrespected all that the first female Black firefighter for the city had accomplished,” a complaint filed in April read, according to The Guardian.
“I was like ‘Wow, why did this happen,’” Clemons said at a press conference in June of 2020, as reported by WPTV News. “I was hurt, I was disappointed, and then I was outraged.”
Nicole Hunt Jackson, Clemons’ attorney, said: “My role is to get to who is responsible, how they came to the conclusion it was acceptable — and to push the issue for the need to examine policies and determine whether or not there needs to be racial sensitivity training,” she explained.
“It’s a huge racial insult. For them to unilaterally take this and decide to not only remove her face but to whitewash the face, it is beyond offensive,” said Jackson.
The two Black firefighters were reportedly removed from the mural at the request of the fire chief because they were no longer with the department.
“The decision made to alter the artwork that was approved by the Public Arts Commission was wrong and disrespectful to our community,” City Manager Lori LaVerriere previously said.
“The City Commission will meet in a closed-door session to discuss the litigation. It is not a public meeting,” LaVerriere told CNN.

Blogs

CONGRATULATIONS TO COCO JONES ON HER ENGAGEMENT

CONGRATULATIONS TO COCO JONES ON HER ENGAGEMENT

Singer Coco Jones and NBA star Donovan Mitchell are engaged. Jones posted an Instagram photo of herself and Mitchell, where she showed off her ring. The couple had been dating for about a year, but both of them kept things quiet. Jones revealed that she and Mitchell were dating on Club Shay Shay in March.

AKON’S CITY IS A BUST

AKON’S CITY IS A BUST

Akon’s futuristic city in Senegal is not happening. The country has taken back the land for the multi-billion-dollar project, which was going to be called Akon City.Senegal will use the land for a resort built with private funding.Last year, Akon was given two weeks to start construction. After there was no movement, and Akon missed…

CRAIG ROBINSON LEAVING COMEDY

CRAIG ROBINSON LEAVING COMEDY

Craig Robinson is leaving comedy.In a recent post on Instagram, The Office actor shared that he’s giving up comedy to focus on “something bigger.”“Life update: I’m officially quitting comedy to focus on my true calling. Stay tuned. I’m working on something huge,” he wrote in the video caption.He teased what his next venture might be in a follow-up…

ANOTHER RECORD FOR SZA AND KENDRICK

ANOTHER RECORD FOR SZA AND KENDRICK

Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Grand National Tour brought in some serious cash. Billboard reports that Grand National is the highest-grossing co-headlining tour ever. The outing has grossed $254.6 million with 1.1 million tickets sold from 23 shows. By comparison, JAY-Z and Beyoncé‘s On the Run II Tour is the only other joint tour to hit…