CAIR-NY calls for removal of Assemblyman Dov Hikind

Influential New York lawmaker wore “blackface” at party.

Bureau Report

NEW YORK: The New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) voiced its support of leaders in New York calling for the removal of New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind from his position as Assistant Majority Leader following his appearance at a party in “blackface.”

Critics say Hikind, Assemblyman for District 48 in Brooklyn, has a history of supporting racist and offensive positions.

In 2001 Hikind launched rhetorical attacks on a mayoral candidate who received the endorsement of a coalition of American Muslim organizations. In 2007, Hikind was “at the forefront” of the campaign to shut down an Arabic language public school, said CAIR-NY.

In 2005 and 2010, Hikind also supported racial profiling bills that would allow law enforcement to use someone’s race and ethnicity as reasonable suspicion when looking at Arab, South Asian and Muslim men.

More recently Hikind attacked students at Brooklyn College as terrorist sympathizers, and called members of the administration cowards for hosting an event focused on Palestinian human rights, it said in a statement.

“An elected official who believes there is nothing wrong with dressing up as a ‘black person’ by painting his face, wearing an afro wig and donning a basketball jersey is clearly out of touch with mainstream American values,” said CAIR-NY Executive Director Muneer Awad. “These disturbing stereotypes are the root cause of racism and discriminatory policies that plague our societies to this day.”

Hikind, however, defended himself after wearing blackface to a party he hosted to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim, saying he did not mean to offend anyone, reported The New York Times.

Hikind, a Democrat and a longtime power broker in the Orthodox Jewish community, wore an Afro wig, brown makeup, an orange jersey and sunglasses as part of a costume that he said represented a “black basketball player.”

“The main objective that I have is not to be recognizable,” Hikind said in an interview to the Times. “Of course the intention was not to offend anyone. That’s the last thing that I ever imagined that would happen, to be very honest. It never crossed my mind.”

Hikind had hundreds of guests to his home on Sunday, and as he said he had done in past years, he enlisted a professional makeup artist to help him with his costume. When his grown son, Yoni, asked him if he could post a photograph of the outfit on Facebook, Hikind said he did not see a problem with it.

But on Monday morning, after The New York Observer published an article about the costume, Hikind found himself at the center of a firestorm. He initially brushed off the attention, writing on his blog that it was a product of “political correctness to the absurd” and adding, “There is not a prejudiced bone in my body.”

Over the course of the day, a parade of elected officials condemned Hikind. Several candidates for mayor of New York City demanded that he apologize, and the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, called his actions “inappropriate and offensive,” said Times.

Assemblyman Karim Camara, the chairman of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, said the outcry on Monday “wasn’t just about being politically correct,” and that he hoped Hikind realized that blackface “has a very painful history to many people.”

In a letter to Hikind, the City Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus wrote that his costume and his initial defense of it were “deeply disturbing,” and asked him to meet with community leaders.

Hikind said he had learned a lesson from the blackface episode.

“Next year I was thinking I’d be an Indian,” he said. “But you know, I’ve changed my mind about that. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Somebody will be offended.”