A growing number of political leaders, parents, and alumni are calling for the resignation of a San Francisco school board member after a series of her tweets were discovered that have been deemed racist.
Board Vice President Alison Collins, elected in 2018, tweeted in 2016 that Asian Americans had used “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead’” and explained that she was attempting to “combat anti-black racism in the Asian community” and “at my daughters’ mostly Asian Am school,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Collins, a black woman, also accused “many Asian American Ts, Ss, and Ps” (teachers, students, and parents) of promoting “the ‘model minority’ BS” and in one tweeted demanded to know “[w]here are the vocal Asians speaking up against Trump?”
“Don’t Asian Americans know they are on his list as well?” Collins said in another tweet. “Do they think they won’t be deported? profiled? beaten? Being a house n—– is still being a n—–. You’re still considered ‘the help.'”
Collins did not apologize for her tweets or delete them as of early afternoon.
— Heather Knight (@hknightsf) March 19, 2021
Members of the local community have expressed outrage over the tweet, and at least one fellow board member, Jeremy Lam, has called for Collins’s resignation, saying that he “shocked” and “dismayed” by the recently unearthed tweets.
The tweets were discovered by a group of parents who posted them late Thursday and have started a recall effort to have her removed from her position.
A local Black Student Union removed Collins as a panelist at a Women in Leadership event on Thursday, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed condemned the tweets but stopped short of calling for a resignation.
“I’m not going to comment on social media posts from five years ago,” Collins said in a statement. “I’ve been heartbroken seeing the escalating violence against my Asian-American brothers, sisters, and siblings.”
“What has been even more upsetting is seeing the ways that the media often erase the true nature of the problem,” she added.
Collins posted a longer explanation on Facebook, saying her tweets were “taken out of context.
Earlier this year, Collins voted in support of a plan to rename over 40 local schools in order to combat racism. The plan, which would have scrapped George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others, was later put on hold due to outrage from parents.
