San Francisco’s top elected officials, including the mayor, state legislators and most supervisors, asked school board vice president Alison Collins to resign on Saturday because of the racist tweets she posted in 2016 aimed at Asian Americans. .
“We are outraged and disgusted by the racist and anti-Asian statements tweeted by school board vice president Alison Collins, which recently surfaced,” said 22 current and former elected officials in a statement on Saturday. “No matter what time, no matter where, and no matter how long ago tweets were written, there is no place for an elected leader in San Francisco who is creating and / or creating hate speech and statements.”
The authorities continued to add their names during the morning and early afternoon.
The employees thanked Collins for his service and asked her to resign.
A tweet topic from SFUSD Vice President Alison Collins of December 4, 2016
Twitter screenshotCity officials, community organizations and parents widely criticized Collins’ racist tweets, which reappeared this week amid a wave of violence and harassment against Asian Americans in the bay area and across the country.
More than 24 hours after the furore broke out and following the request of dozens of public officials for her to resign, Collins – who refused to apologize on Friday – expressed regret in an online post on Saturday morning for the pain that your words caused.
She did not resign.
Collins refused to identify his tweets as racist and repeatedly insisted that they were taken out of context. The posts were still active on Saturday morning. The Chronicle published the posts on social media in full.
“A series of tweets and social media posts that I made in 2016 were recently highlighted. They were taken out of context, both from that specific moment and from the nuance of the conversation that took place, ”she said in a statement. “… I recognize that at this moment, at this moment, my words out of context may be causing more pain for those who are already suffering. For the pain my words may have caused, I’m sorry and I apologize without reservation. “
Approximately one-third of the district’s more than 52,000 students are Asian-American.
Breed spokesman Jeff Cretan said the mayor did not regard Collins’ statement on Saturday as an apology for his social media posts.
School board member Jenny Lam said she was “dismayed” at Collins’ statement, calling it “no apology.”
In short, she diverted the question to former President Trump and claimed that her tweets were ‘taken out of context’ twice, when it was clear when and why she made these statements, “said Lam.” I can’t imagine that families now feel safe with someone on our board who feels comfortable saying something so offensive about Asian Americans and still refuses to fully confess and apologize ”.
Lam is the only member of the school so far to resign Collins from the board. The other school board members did not respond to requests for comment.
Although Mayor London Breed was not among those who signed the declaration, she posted on social media on Saturday that she also wanted Collins to step down.
“I support the pleas of leaders like David Chiu and (school board member) Jenny Lam, as well as many others, for Alison Collins to step down,” said Breed. “Our students and our API community (Asia Pacific Islands) deserve better.”
Those who signed the declaration included 10 supervisors, with Dean Preston being the only name missing; former supervisors Norman Yee, Jane Kim and Sandra Lee Fewer; Assembly members David Chiu and Phil Ting; BART directors Janice Li and Bevan Dufty; and David Campos, president of the Democratic Party of San Francisco; Ivy Lee, former City College curator; and Susan Solomon, president of United Educators of San Francisco.
“At the end of a tragic week for our Asian American community, I was very disappointed to learn of the comments made by the vice president of the school board, Collins, who perpetuate false and harmful stereotypes,” said Chiu in a statement. “I agree that Commissioner Collins must resign and I hope she can understand why.”
School Superintendent Vince Matthews declined to address the tweets specifically, but sent a letter on Friday to district officials about the matter.
“We have to come together and speak when we see or hear racist actions or behavior perpetrated against any member of our community,” he said. “All forms of racism are harmful to our entire community, and raising one group does not mean demeaning another. We must not create divisions at a time when it is important to be united … we will not let go of the hurt felt by recent actions.
At a time when we are seeing an increase in anti-Asian violence, xenophobia and racism in our country, we must commit ourselves again to creating safe communities for each person ”.
The students also spoke. Based on the tweets, the Lowell Black Student Union removed Collins as a speaker at a Women in Leadership event on Thursday night.
“Lowell Black Student Union is with the Asian community and condemns all acts of anti-Asian hatred,” said organizers in an Instagram post.
Jill Tucker is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @jilltucker