*A Denver doctor has been suspended from seeing patients indefinitely after she called first lady Michelle Obama “monkey face” on Facebook, then defended it by insisting it wasn’t a racist comment.
According to the local ABC affiliate KMGH, Dr. Michelle Herren, an anesthesiologist at Denver Health Medical Center and an assistant professor at Colorado University School of Medicine, posted a photo of Obama on Facebook with the caption “doesn’t seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can’t hear her! Harvard??? That’s a place for “entitled” folks said all the liberals!”
Herren then doubled down, saying: “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!”
Joann Nieto, appalled by Herren’s post, emailed the Colorado University Board of Regents. “Hiding behind the excuse that you’re not racist doesn’t negate the fact that you are being racist,” Nieto told KMGH.
Herren has since deleted the comment, and eventually took down her entire Facebook page. But she still insisted in a phone interview with KMGH that her comments were not racist, but were taken out of context — and that she didn’t realize the term monkey face was racist. Herren said she was responding to another post pointing out people say whatever they want about Melania Trump, but if they do the same about Michelle Obama they’re considered racist.
According to the Denver Post, which noted Herren takes home a salary of $363,000 a year, the pediatric doctor will not be seeing patients at Denver Health Medical Center. It is unclear if Herren is being formally suspended.
In a statement to the paper, Denver Health said, “Until further notice, Michelle Herren, MD, will not be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services at Denver Health.”
In recent weeks, Mrs. Obama has been the target of a series of racial Facebook attacks. Beverly Whaling resigned as mayor of Clay, West Virginia, after she responded favorably to a Facebook friend calling the first lady an “ape in heels.”
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