EUGENE, Ore. — A University of Oregon law professor who donned blackface as part of a doctor costume at her Halloween party has apologized, saying she only wanted to stimulate dialogue about race relations in America.
Nancy Shurtz said in an apology released Friday that she wore a white coast, stethoscope and black face paint to portray Dr. Damon Tweedy, who wrote the best-selling memoir “Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine,” the Register-Guard reported on Saturday.
“I intended to provoke a thoughtful discussion on racism in our society, in our educational institutions and in our professions,” Shurtz wrote. “In retrospect, my decision to wear black makeup was wrong. It provoked a discussion of racism, but not as I intended.”
The controversy has caused a stir at the university.