A firefighter with the Dell Rapids, South Dakota Fire Department has been removed from his job for a posting he made on Facebook in which he advocated the return of slavery in the United States.
John Nygaard allegedly made several racist posts on social media which came to the attention of Dell Rapids residents and eventually were reported to Nygaard’s supervisors. One resident, William Dezee, commented:
“You’re a public servant and you’re putting stuff like that on Facebook, that’s not good.
“There’s enough problems going on, we don’t need racial slurs or people wearing masks or saying something that’s what 160 years old, leave it alone. That’s the way it should be.”
Dell Rapids Fire Rescue posted this message on their Facebook page:
John is no longer a member of our volunteer organization. Dell Rapids fire would like to apologize on behalf of our former member for his insensitive and narrow-minded comments on Facebook. This is something we take very seriously and this type of thinking will not be tolerated by our members.
All of this began when former Kansas State University Paige Shoemaker posted a photo of herself and another white friend wearing a facial mask. The mask made it appear the two students were in blackface and carried this caption:
“Feels good to finally be a n*gga.”
Shoemaker was promptly expelled from the university and has since apologized for her actions.
Here’s a screenshot of what Nygaard posted in response to Shoemaker, courtesy of RawStory:
This is the kind of hatred and intolerance which has been made mainstream and acceptable to some in the Age of Trump.
h/t RawStory
Featured Image Via Pexels
