SC councilman posted meme of Hillary Clinton in blackface. Now he’s resigning
A town councilman in South Carolina faced swift backlash after posting a meme of Hillary Clinton in blackface on his personal Facebook page, media outlets report.
Now he’s resigning from office.
Chadwick Sweatman, a three-term councilman for Moncks Corner, announced his resignation Wednesday a few hours after deleting his post, WCIV reported. Mayor Michael Lockliear confirmed Sweatman’s resignation in a statement on the town’s Facebook page.
“The Town of Moncks Corner is committed to inclusion representative of all of Monck Corner’s citizens. We have worked hard over the past several years to build bridges and increase understanding,” Lockliear said, adding that Sweatman’s post “is not representative of our values or reflective of these efforts.”
Moncks Corner sits just below Lake Moultrie in South Carolina’s lowcountry, roughly 45 minutes north of Charleston. It has a population of roughly 12,000 — 28% of which is Black, according to U.S. Census records.
Sweatman posted a meme of Clinton in blackface saying “Dear Joe, I’m still available” on Tuesday night, according to screenshots shared on social media.
He captioned it “Too funny not to share, Joe must have forgotten that she texted.”
The post was removed and Sweatman posted an apology the following day, WCBD reported. His Facebook page has since been deleted, according to the TV station.
Facebook users also took screenshots of the apology, which states in part that he intended the post “as a political jab” after former Vice President Joe Biden announced Sen. Kamala Harris — who is Black and Indian — as his running mate. Sweatman said “Clinton would likely do anything and everything possible to be back in the White House.”
But he said the post was not intended to “create a racial divide” and that he “would never support racism.”
“In some of the comments, posters eluded to the picture as ‘black face’ which only this morning I found out was a racially unacceptable term and/or depiction,” Sweatman said in the apology.
Community activist Sharea Washington told WCSC he should have known better.
“When you see all of these things taking place and it’s a national issue, there’s no way that you can jump on and say I just didn’t know or just last night found out,” Washington said, according to the TV station. “That’s nonsense, it’s poppycock and we can’t allow that, it’s intolerable.”
Sweatman heeded calls to resign Wednesday afternoon, saying in a statement released to media outlets that he cared about the community “too much to cause my momentary lapse in judgment to become a distraction or in any way diminish the very excellent work of our Mayor and Town Council,” WCSC reported.
“My choice in posting the image was never maliciously intended. It was meant to be a joke,” he said. “In hindsight, I understand it was a poor joke.”
