Photo: Getty Images
A Chicago judge has been temporarily reassigned after allegedly sharing a racist meme featuring a Black toddler wearing an ankle monitor.
According to Atlanta Black Star, Judge Caroline Glennon-Goodman, who presides over a pretrial courtroom in Cook County Criminal Court, was reassigned on Friday (January 10) and referred to the Judicial Inquiry Board over an alleged racist text message she sent to a judiciary member.
The alleged message included an edited photo of an ad for the children's toy brand Little Tykes. The meme showed a Black child advertising "My First Ankle Monitor" with the item wrapped around his leg.
According to Injustice Watch, Glenn-Goodman meant to send the image to a friend as a joke but instead shared the message with a judiciary member with the same first name.
"My husband’s idea of Christmas humor,” Glenn-Goodman allegedly wrote alongside the racist image.
Following a meeting of the court’s executive committee, Chief Judge Timothy Evans said Glenn-Goodman would be reassigned and ordered to receive training on implicit bias.
The Cook County Bar Association condemned Glenn-Goodman's actions in a statement.
“It is our understanding that the photo was meant to be shared with a different audience and that the judge involved has apologized profusely as a result. Nevertheless, such media is inappropriate to share regardless of the intended audience,” the statement read. “Discernment and judgment are of utmost importance for the qualifications of a judge. Any judge should be unbiased enough to not further circulate such a racist trope.”
“The imagery recalls our nation’s history of inappropriate media images of Black people (such as blackface) and such imagery continues to shape the opinions of Black people, particularly Black men."
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