As previously reported by REVOLT, a Black New York firefighter named Jerrod Jones recently made headlines for alleging his white Rochester Fire Department captain, Jeffrey Krywy, took him and three other coworkers to a racist Juneteenth party. Jones said the party was in “one of the city’s most affluent communities.”
On Tuesday (Aug. 23), a press conference was held to discuss the troubling situation. Reports say Mary Nicosia, the white woman who threw the party, used buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken to decorate her lawn for the Juneteenth party. She also allegedly served Hennessy. As the press conference began, Nicosia said, “I’m here to defend myself from false claims of racism.” Shockingly, she added, “But before I do that, in full disclosure, I do have a Twitter parody account that operates under a veil of a persona — and I have made blatantly racist comments under that persona.”
The wealthy wife and mother of two posted racist tweets under the Twitter handle @HoHoHomeboyROC. Many of the posts contained exaggerated images of Black people speaking broken English. “For these comments, I’d like to apologize to the African American community, and for other people in the community I have hurt or offended by doing what I was doing on Twitter,” she said.
Her lawyer Corey Hogan insisted his client meant no harm and the Juneteenth party was instead meant to mock liberals over their politics. Hogan showed the invitation to Nicosia’s party, which read “1st annual Liberal Smashin Splish Splash Pool Party.” Hogan did speak out about Nicosia’s social media presence. “No question, you look at her Twitter account — yup, that’s racist. There’s no justification for it,” the lawyer said. He also contradicted himself by saying, “I challenge you, the press — look into their background, find anything in their lives, their 50-plus-year lives, that’s racist.”
Although Nicosia spoke in front of a group of reporters admitting to the “blatantly racist” tweets, Hogan denied she “has a racist bone in her body.” Nicosia’s husband Dr. Nicholas Nicosia spoke at the conference, claiming the accusations against him and his wife from their Juneteenth party were “an organized, malicious, well-orchestrated, politically charged attack.” He believed they were an easy target because people see them as a “snooty couple that lives in a big mansion.”