UPDATE: Sen. Steve Huffman has issued an apology on his Facebook page, in which he writes: "I recognize that my choice of words was unacceptable and hurtful. I apologize, and I make no excuses."
A Republican state senator from the Dayton area has lost his job as an emergency room doctor after asking a racially insensitive question at a hearing on a resolution to declare racism a public health crisis.
Sen. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) has issued a statement saying his question was “unintentionally awkward” and “perceived as hurtful”, but he did not apologize for it.
Huffman can barely be heard on the video of the hearing questioning the head of the Ohio Minority Health Commission about COVID-19 hitting black Ohioans disproportionately hard. But Shibani Chettri heard him.
“He basically said, could it just be that African Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as some other groups?” Chettri said she heard Huffman ask.
Chettri, a PhD candidate in epidemiology at Ohio State who was there to testify for the resolution, said she was horrified that the term was used.
But she said she was also horrified that the question was directed to Angela Dawson, a black woman who is the Executive Director of the Ohio Minority Health Commission and had just explained some of the known reasons why there are more cases of COVID-19 among blacks, and why they are hospitalized at higher rates.
“He had his question answered and then he dismissed everything that was presented to him," Chettri said.
And she adds: “It just exemplified everything we were talking about, I think.”
The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus echoed that and has called on Huffman to resign.
Unfortunately, the stories of Ohioans who came to testify in support of SCR 14 to declare #RacismIsAPublicHealthCrisis was undermined in a moment by a question of a Senator. Here is the @_OLBC response to the “colored” statement. pic.twitter.com/ayQ9I8fBnM
— Ohio Legislative Black Caucus (@_OLBC) June 11, 2020
The ACLU of Ohio has also said Huffman should immediately step down.
Huffman issued a statement that reads in full:
“Regrettably, I asked a question in an unintentionally awkward way that was perceived as hurtful and was exactly the opposite of what I meant. I was trying to focus on why COVID-19 affects people of color at a higher rate since we really do not know all the reasons."
On Thursday, Huffman posted a longer statement that includes an apology:
