Jorge Rivas

Bloomberg Appointee Betsy Perry Resigns Amid Furor Over Racist Statements

In her internet rant titled “Montezuma’s Revenge: Can The Best Thing About Mexico Really Be Beverly Hills Chihuahua?” Betsy Perry called Mexico a country of “guns, drugs, kidnappings and swine flu.”

Perry posted her rant online at the Huffington Post on April 28 thinking she’d be “sharp and funny,” but her rant was anything but that. Her rant isn’t obviously sarcastic, but it so crazy, that even if she was being sarcastic, the article is still full of racist stereotypes, assumptions, and just down right stabs at Mexico and the Latino community at large.

On Huffington Post, Perry identified herself as a “Strategic marketing and branding consultant” but it didn’t take too long for someone to google her and find out that she was also a member of Bloomberg’s Women’s Issue Committee. The NY Daily News reports: “Controller William Thompson, Bloomberg’s likely Democratic opponent in the mayor’s race, joined nine Asian and Latino elected officials last week in calling for the mayor to remove Perry from the voluntary post.”And it worked, on Monday Perry released a statement saying she was resigning.

But there is a new problem forming for a lot people: Bloomberg didn’t fire Perry. He referred to Perry’s comments as “inappropriate” and that was it. Bloomberg not calling out this woman’s racist comments and not taking action is turning this situation in to an even bigger issue.

Thank You Edwin for the tip via comments.

Posted at 6:11 AM, May 06, 2009 in Permalink | View Comments