A South Carolina fire rescue employee resigned from his post after he faced allegations of racism due to a video skit featuring comic book characters that surfaced on social media and reportedly showed him using the N-word.
According to WMBF, Ryan Jacob stepped down from his position with Horry County Fire Rescue just hours after his department launched an investigation into the video.
The video was posted in the comments of one of the fire agency’s Facebook posts updating the community about the response to the 2,000-acre wildfire burning in the Carolina Forest area.
The 21-second clip, which has since been removed from the thread, reportedly shows Jacob using filters to portray himself as DC Comics characters Batman and Joker and depicting the hero-villain duo having a conversation about saying the N-word.
“I’m going to say the N-word, Batman,” the video begins, according to WBTW.
“Joker, you can’t do that, not in Gotham.”
“I’m going to say it, Batman!”
At that point, the Joker character says the slur and the video reportedly cuts back to Batman responding with a disappointed look on his face.
Shortly after the video was removed from the department’s page, agency officials commented, “Horry County Fire Rescue has been made aware of this video and allegation of racism by an employee. We take this very seriously, have immediately taken steps to look into this matter and will take appropriate steps in response as needed. HCFR unequivocally opposes racism and discrimination of any kind. We do not tolerate any form of racism or discrimination.”
Sources told WMBF the video was created some years prior to Jacob’s employment with the fire department. A Horry County resident told the outlet she thought posting the video at this time — as the agency is battling intense wildfires — was shameful.
“It’s a disgrace,” Pat Frawley said. “Every workplace, there’s always somebody who doesn’t do the right thing. That’s human nature, and this person did. But he doesn’t represent our firefighters at all.“
