The UO is a public university, and Shurtz is therefore a public employee, whose behavior even outside of work, if it affects her workplace, can be subject to employment law. Social media postings outside of work are one example of this.

Here's another way to look at this... Do you see minorities doing anything comparable to blackface? Do you see, for example, African Americans using "white-face" or something similar to disparage or in other ways make a political statement about whites? I've not read any reports about such a phenomenon. 

The lesson is not about staying white or staying another color. It is about white people, especially in 2016, just accepting the fact that blackface is not appropriate, ever. Not at a private home party, not at a public event, not ever. For people who continue to insist that blackface is only racist if it is used in a certain context are engaging in intellectual dishonesty and deliberately ignoring the very real history of blackface in U.S. history.