Missouri Nurse Fired for Blackface ‘Beyoncé’ Costume

As we’ve covered here at The Root before (just yesterday, in fact), it’s that time of year when a certain class of white people, bereft of any common sense, sensitivity, or any sense of the world outside their enchanted snow globe of Caucasity, decide to dabble in blackface under the guise of putting on a Halloween costume.

It’s also the time of year when these dumbass snowflakes get fired.

This was the case with Shelbi Elliott-Heenan, a registered nurse at St. Luke’s Hospital in Lee’s Summit, Mo. As KCTV reports, the hospital fired Elliott-Heenan after someone called to alert them about the nurse’s Halloween costume, which she had posted and shared on Facebook.

The costume, as you might have gathered, showed Elliott-Heenan covered in brown makeup, alongside her husband, Jasmond Heenan, who also appears to be in (more minstrel-like) blackface, KCUR reports.

According to the Facebook caption, the Heenans were dressed as Jay-Z and Beyoncé, which raises at least one very important question: In whose alabaster-ass, Megyn Kelly-fied, Jesus-is-a-white-man world is this Beyoncé?

Has this woman actually ever seen Beyoncé? Any version of Beyoncé? Because whatever this hot mess of shoe polish, low-grade acrylic, and black Uggs with a dash of sequins is, it’s most decidedly not a Beyoncé. It’s just Becky with the blackface.

But, just as with Kelly a week ago, blackface—practicing it, or in Kelly’s case, defending it—can cost you your job. After an unidentified woman reached out to St. Luke’s on Monday regarding Elliott-Heenan’s costume, the hospital fired her by lunchtime, reports KCTV.

In a statement obtained by KCTV, St. Luke’s wrote: “While it is against Saint Luke’s policy to comment on specific personnel matters, we can confirm that this individual is no longer a Saint Luke’s employee.”

“Saint Luke’s is deeply committed to our culture of diversity and inclusion,” the hospital continued. “It is fundamental to who we are as an organization and we vigorously protect it on behalf of all our patients and employees and expect those who represent us to do the same.”

Or, to put it more succinctly: “Sorry, I ain’t sorry.”