“What? Can’t you take a joke?”

Lawyer Andrew Barovick  resigned his leadership position with the New York City Bar Association after sending the following tweet about Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss, a Republican who had just lost the election and who happened to be black

 “In light of election loss, [Sheriff Moss is] mulling offers to be new spokes model for either Cream of Wheat or Uncle Ben’s rice.”

Oh, nice.

Barovick is described as a Democratic activist, so like all such activists tinged blue, racial sensitivity is paramount. Unless, of course, a black individual is a conservative or Republican, in which case racial mockery is fine.

A group called Westchester Citizens Against Racism sent Barovick a tweet asking if he meant it:

“@AndyBarovick I’ll give you ’til noon to retract this racist tweet, Mr. Barovick. After that, I’ll assume you really meant it. “

He replied, “@wfbor Let me save you the trouble of waiting, Mr. O’Reilly. I meant it. Oh, and sorry about your campaign’s loss.”

As a result of the angry response to the original tweet, Barovick was forced to resign as chairman of the New York Bar Association’s Medical Malpractice Committee, which he did saying,

“As you know, I made a grave mistake by attempting to use humor to personally convey my frustration with the New York Republican Party through a tweet that upset a great number of people.”

…thus adding a pathetic non-apology apology to the unethical tweet. On the Ethics Alarms Apology Scale, this is a #9 at best (an ethical apology ranks 1-4):

9. Deceitful apologies, in which the wording of the apology is crafted to appear apologetic when it is not (“if my words offended, I am sorry”). Another variation: apologizing for a tangential matter other than the act or words that warranted an apology.

Barovick says he made a mistake (though he emphasized it was not a mistake initially) “attempting to use humor” (because comparing blacks to Uncle Ben, Aunt Jemima, Prissy, Stepin Fetchit and similar stereotypes is so hilarious. He must have told it wrong…) because he was frustrated (which is a perfectly good reason to hurl racial insults) with Republicans (“Oh, them. Well, we don’t blame you a bit!”) that upset people. (For some reason. Go figure!)

Yecchhhhhh.