The home of former San Francisco, California, supervisor Angela Alioto was egged over the weekend in a move that she believes was retaliation for repeatedly using the n-word during a meeting with Black city workers last month.
“When I first saw it, I took a deep breath thinking, ‘Wow. Anger. Hostility,’” Alioto, a civil rights attorney, and a former mayoral candidate, told KPIX 5.
Alioto drew backlash last month when she ironically was trying to address racial discrimination in the workplace…in the same breath as using the n-word multiple times to make her point.
“You very rarely have direct evidence of discrimination,” Alioto said. “You very rarely have ‘I’m going to work with this n–ger,’ ‘I’m not going to work with that n–ger.”‘
“It is the law and the word ‘n–ger’ in the workplace is per se racial harassment and racial animus,” she continued in her remarks during a San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee meeting on April 24.
Alioto would repeat the slur six times in total, drawing protests from the crowd as members yelled for her to stop.
Gloria Berry, a state assembly district delegate who was at the meeting said that Alioto’s repeated use of the slur drew some members of the crowd to tears.
“I understand that point that in the courtroom, that’s what she has done in that context. But for her as a white woman to redefine that night that now it is okay…that hasn’t been a consensus amongst the community, that now it’s okay to use that word in a community meeting,” Berry said. “She was triggering people who came to ask for support. She was re-injuring them, basically.”
Berry, along with other members of the DCCC, want Alioto to be removed from office, which is elected. However, Alioto said that she will fight to keep her position.
“I’m a trail lawyer. And I would never in a courtroom minimize the horrendousness of that word. In a courtroom, you have to tell the jury what the plaintiff heard. Has this been a lesson in public space? Absolutely. This has been a huge lesson to me,” she said.