--- title: Michelle Obama Called 'Monkey Face' by Colorado Doctor description: Dr. Michelle Herren called Michelle Obama a 'monkey face' in a Facebook Post and was suspended by the Denver hospital for the racist slur. canonical: https://time.com/4588752/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-02T16:06:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:00.950Z og:title: Doctor Who Called Michelle Obama 'Monkey Face' Has Been Suspended og:description: The hospital condemned her slurs og:url: https://time.com/4588752/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41c3d0bc1f87331b/6988b0668e0601052e46873d/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks At Event Celebrating 20th Century Art og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Doctor Who Called Michelle Obama 'Monkey Face' Has Been Suspended twitter:description: The hospital condemned her slurs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41c3d0bc1f87331b/6988b0668e0601052e46873d/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Doctor Who Called Michelle Obama 'Monkey Face' Has Been Suspended > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Dec 2, 2016 4:06 PM UTC  U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during an event to celebrate 20th Century Art in the White House October 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. The first lady hosted college students studying art history and the fine arts to participate in an afternoon workshop with members of the White House Historical Association, the Committee for Preservation of the White House, and the White House Curatorial staff. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during an event to celebrate 20th Century Art in the White House October 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. The first lady hosted college students studying art history and the fine arts to participate in an afternoon workshop with members of the White House Historical Association, the Committee for Preservation of the White House, and the White House Curatorial staff. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Dec 2, 2016 4:06 PM UTC A Denver hospital indefinitely [suspended](https://mic.com/articles/160849/colorado-doctor-calls-michelle-obama-monkey-face-on-facebook-insists-it-s-not-racist#.AB0y365SX) a doctor who called First Lady Michelle Obama a “monkey face” in a Facebook post, [the Denver _Post_ reports](http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/30/doctor-racist-facebook-comments/). Dr. Michelle Herren, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Denver Health and an assistant professor at University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, wrote the comment in response to a post describing the first lady as eloquent. “Doesn’t seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can’t hear her!” Herren wrote, according to the _Post_. “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!” JoAnn Nieto, who shares a mutual friend with Herren on the social media platform, notified Denver Health and CU Board of Regents about the post. A spokesperson for Denver Health, which pays Herren $363,000 a year, said it was investigating its legal options to discipline the doctor. Herren won’t see patients or administer anesthesia services at the hospital “until further notice,” [according to the _Post_](http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/30/doctor-racist-facebook-comments/). The hospital also issued a statement on Facebook saying that it was disappointed with Herren’s post and emphasized that it was “contrary to the mission and values of Denver Health, and to our staff and patients.” The University of Colorado said it was planning to terminate Herren. “She has expressed values that are at odds with ours and she has compromised her ability to meet the teaching and patient care mission of the School of Medicine,” a spokesperson for the University said, [according to the _Post_](http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/01/denver-health-doctor-racist-facebook-comments/). Herren, who has since deleted her Facebook account, told [a local ABC affiliate](http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/cu-professor-under-fire-for-racially-charged-facebook-post) that the post was taken “out of context” and that she didn’t realize “monkey face” was offensive. Herren said she was responding to another post that expressed that people could criticize Melania Trump but those who criticize Michelle Obama are deemed racist, according to ABC. But Obama [has been subject](http://time.com/4573554/michelle-obama-racism-first-lady/) to frequent racism during her husband’s presidential campaign and her tenure as first lady — and [describing](http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/05/comparing%5Fblack%5Fpeople%5Fto%5Fmonkeys%5Fit%5Fs%5Fworse%5Fthan%5Fyou%5Fthought/) blacks as monkeys has a long and sordid history. And just last month, for example, the mayor of a town in West Virginia [resigned from her post](http://time.com/4572463/west-virginia-mayor-resigns-michelle-obama-ape-heels/) after calling Obama an “ape in heels.” At [a commencement address](http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/23/politics/michelle-obama-commencement-speech/) at Jackson State University in April, Obama told graduates of the historically black school that they’d inevitably experience racism during their lives. “I wish I could say otherwise, graduates, but the question isn’t whether you’re going to come face to face with these issues. The question is how you’re going to respond when you do,” she said. “Lift up your head and do what Barack Obama has always done, as he says, ‘when they go low, I go high.’ That’s the choice Barack and I have made. That’s what’s kept us sane over the years.” \[[The Denver _Post_](http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/30/doctor-racist-facebook-comments/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4588752/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4588752/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor/"},"headline":"Doctor Who Called Michelle Obama 'Monkey Face' Has Been Suspended","datePublished":"2016-12-02T16:06:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:00.950Z","description":"The hospital condemned her slurs","url":"https://time.com/4588752/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41c3d0bc1f87331b/6988b0668e0601052e46873d/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41c3d0bc1f87331b/6988b0668e0601052e46873d/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks At Event Celebrating 20th Century Art","caption":"First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks At Event Celebrating 20th Century Art","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4588752/michelle-obama-monkey-face-doctor/","name":"Doctor Who Called Michelle Obama 'Monkey Face' Has Been Suspended"}}]}] ```