A Republican mayor from Pennsylvania has resigned recently as a public uproar was triggered by the official's racist Facebook posts. The two shameless posts contained apes and references to President Obama and his family.
The (now) former mayor thought it would be a good idea to post a wagon of orangutans with the caption "moving day" at the White House. The second image was just as baffling as it brought up one of the darkest past times in American history, aka lynching.
Last week, the council of the West York borough cast a vote to infringe Mayor Charles Wasko. It should be mentioned that the council did not have the legislative leverage to cast Wasko out of office.
Meanwhile, Wasko signed his resignation and the council unanimously accepted it on Monday, Oct. 17. He will be replaced by Shawn Mauck, the Council President who comes from the Democrat party.
Mauck affirms the scandal gave Mayor Wasko a good opportunity to make good with the public opinion, but he missed it entirely. According to Mauck, should Wasko have apologized after the digital incident, it would have marked "a move forward" for the controversial politician.
He goes on to state his doubtfulness that Wasko took his position as mayor seriously throughout his mandate. During the reading of the motion to revoke Wasko, Mauck noted that West York was sadly more famous for its racist mayor than for anything else.
In retort, Wasko claims that he is the victim of a "witch hunt," which can be traced back to a fight over the acting police chief in the borough. West York counts 4,500 residents and is located 100 miles west of Philadelphia.
However, Wasko did confirm in an interview that he sports a racist attitude. What is worse, he followed up with, "I don't care what people label me as." He also made clear that he has zero regrets about posting insulting messages referencing Mr. Obama, the nation's first black president.
Wasko said he will voluntarily resign if the borough brings back the anterior police chief, who is currently on paid leave.
According to Mauck, the council was obliged to look at Wasko's conditions, but nothing forced it to give it. In the end, the council decided it will maintain in office the current chief of police.
Some tech companies are already tackling the challenge of filtering racist comments on their platforms. Earlier this year, Blizzard and Twitch inked a deal to clean up such slurs from their ecosystem.
What are your thoughts on the surging racist attitudes on social media? Let us know in the comments section below.
