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Calls Ramp Up for SF School Board Vice Pres. Who Referred to Asians as 'House N***' to Resign

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 20, 2021 7:45 PM

Alison Collins, the vice-president of the San Francisco school board, is facing an increasing amount of calls to resign for her twitter rant about Asian-Americans in 2016, in which she referred to Asian-Americans as "white supremacists" and "house n****ger." Collins' tweets wrote the word in asterisks, rather than spelling it out. 

Those calling on Collins to resign include Mayor London Breed, fellow school board member Jenny Lam, Assembly member Daniel Chiu, and the Alice B Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club.

The tweets were shared by "nonpartisan, brownie-powered" Recall the SF Board Effort, as their 19th reason out of 30 to recall the school board, released in the month of March. She is also referenced in their 15th reason, "Commissioner Collins think merit is racist." The first reason provided is "SF Schools are shut while large cities with MUCH higher case rates have re-opened."

Collins responded with a tweet, which included an excerpt from and link to a Medium post she wrote, titled "What matters most." 

In her Medium post, Collins did write "For the pain my words may have caused I am sorry, and I apologize unreservedly." Recall SF School Board also retweeted screenshots of a previous tweet from Collins, though, where she rejected a corporate apology from Dove.

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In addition to the excerpt included in her tweet, Collins also in her Medium post more forcefully claimed her words were "taken out of context" writing:

A number of tweets and social media posts I made in 2016 have recently been highlighted. They have been taken out of context, both of that specific moment and the nuance of the conversation that took place. President Donald Trump had just won an election fueled by division, racism and an anti-immigration agenda. Meanwhile one of my daughters had recently experienced an incident in her school in which her Asian American peers were taunting her Latinx classmate about “sending kids back to Mexico” and the KKK. It was a time of processing, of fear among many communities with the unknown of how the next four years would unfold.

In her statement to National Review, Collins in part said that "I’m not going to comment on social media posts from five years ago."

In contrast, on Thursday, Alex McCammond announced that she would not be the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue after all, due to controversy surrounding tweets of hers about Asians. McCammond posted the now-deleted tweets in 2011, when she was 17, and had since apologized.

Another one of those calling on Collins to resign, and who has retweeted the calls from several others, includes a former school board candidate, Josephine Zhao, who heeded calls for her to withdraw from running in 2018.

The Recall SF Board Effort shares on its website that it is in the "PREPARATION" stage, which is anticipated to go until April 8, in "The road to recall." The "PETITION" stage is anticipated to be April 8-October 15, followed by the final  "ELECTION" stage. If a simple majority in a special election votes to recall a member, the Recall SF Board Effort explains that "The mayor then appoints a replacement for the remainder of their term." Those calling on