Pamela Taylor, the director of the Clay County Development Corp in West Virginia, who got some unwelcome fame for calling Michelle Obama an "Ape in Heels" on Facebook has just been cleared to go back to work. According to the Chareleston Gazette-Mail, Taylor will return to work on December 23rd at the CCDC which received nearly $2.0mm in state and federal funding in 2014.
The director of a Clay County nonprofit group, who was removed from her position after making a racist Facebook post about first lady Michelle Obama, plans to return to her job later this month, according to a letter from the agency's acting director.
Pamela Taylor, whose online post referred to Obama as an “ape in heels,” is on suspension and is scheduled to return to work at the Clay County Development Corp. on Friday, Dec. 23, according to the letter from Leslie McGlothin to the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services.
The state bureau's commissioner, Robert Roswall, has warned the Clay agency that any discrimination from staff would jeopardize their state and federal funding.
In a letter dated Nov. 14 — the day media reports about Taylor's Facebook became widespread — Roswall warned that “any discrimination of staff or the customers [they] serve” could cause the agency to lose funding from state and federal agencies. The organization received about $1.5 million in federal funding and $363,000 in state funding in 2014.
Apparently this wasn't Taylor's first controversy at the CCDC as she was fired in 1999 as part of a "restructuring" effort by the board and in 2002 after she was accused of pocketed fundraising money.
In 1999, Taylor and two other employees lost their jobs when Clay Development's board was restructured. Within a few days, a judge ordered that all three get their jobs back.
Taylor said in a lawsuit deposition that she was removed from her job again in 2002 after she was accused of pocketing fundraising dollars, but was hired back after a few months.
In 2009, Clay Development listed the job requirements for the executive director position. The director was supposed to have, at minimum, a bachelor's degree with 10 years' experience.
Taylor said in a 2008 deposition that she attended Clay County High School and had no college education. Prior to joining the Clay Development staff in 1989, she was a cosmetologist.
Seems like a swell gal...
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For those who missed it, here is what we wrote back in November.
Apparently two grown-up women in the small town of Clay, West Virginia completely forgot that once they post something to a social media site it immediately becomes public for everyone to see. That said, something tells us they won't ever be making that mistake again.
Pamela Taylor, director of the Clay County
Development Corp, and Beverly Whaling, Clay's mayor, went viral today but for all the wrong reasons. Their notoriety began with the discovery of the following FaceBook exchange in which Taylor refers to Michelle Obama as an "Ape in heels." Apparently amused by the comment, Whaling responded: "Just made my day Pam."
Understandably, the post drew outrage from people living in Clay, WV and around the country as 150,000 people signed an online petition to have both of the women fired from their respective government-funded positions. And, it seems to have worked as, according to Reuters, both Taylor and Whaling have since submitted their official resignation letters.
After resigning from her position as Mayor of Clay, WV, Whaling offered the following statement to The Washington Post:
“My comment was not intended to be racist at all. I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused! Those who know me know that I’m not of any way racist! Again, I would like to apologize for this getting out of hand!”
Sure, it's probably our fault for rushing to judgement on this one...calling a black lady an "Ape in heels" can imply so many things other than racism. Except, not really.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdVpAvy11Mg