A horrified colleague has called out a leading NAACP activist for hate speech after she denounced migrants as raping, burgling savages who do not speak English.
Teresa Haley was complaining to branch presidents of the Illinois NAACP about support offered Chicago authorities to the 26,000 migrants who have arrived in the city since August last year.
Haley who heads the NAACP state conference also used the N-word and sneered at transsexuals during the video call which was recorded by former Du Bois County branch president Patrick Watson.
‘These immigrants who come over here, they’ve been raping people, they’ve been breaking into homes, they’re like savages as well,’ she said.
‘They don’t speak the language and they look at us like we’re crazy.’
More than 26,000 have arrived in Chicago since August last year amid tension with residents
Patrick Watson who recorded the comments accused Haley of betraying the organization’s legacy with ‘derogatory, hateful language’
Haley suggested ‘AI’ may have been used to doctor her words when reached on holiday in Dubai by WLS-Ch7, adding: ‘With AI anything is possible.’
But Watson said the comments were heard by everyone at the meeting.
‘We’ve had immigrants who’ve been shot at, we’ve had immigrants who’ve been killed,’ he added.
‘We have had people who have been beaten up because of their immigration status, and enough is enough, it’s time to stand up and say no to hate.
‘You can be for raising up your people without denigrating other people.’
Haley is a rising star in the organization and won its activist of the year award in 2021.
She is campaigning for a seat on running on its national board and found backing from current DuPage County board president Michael Childress who said she had his full support.
‘These comments are not indicative of what the NAACP stands for, but I’m not going to speak on behalf of Teresa Haley and say she should or shouldn’t resign or things like that,’ he added.
Haley who has a bachelors degree in ‘communication’ runs a training and consulting service and bills herself on its website as a ‘dynamic speaker’.
She told the meeting that migrants were benefitting at the expense of black people.
‘We were the only people in America who were brought over here against our wills and we’re slaves, sold into slavery,’ she said.
The city’s airport and police stations have been used to shelter the thousands of migrants
But the city is budgeting a $150 million spend on new facilities at the start of 2024
As winter approached, Mayor Brandon Johnson has opened camps for migrants, some of which are being placed in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods
‘But unlike everybody else who comes over here, we’re so kind, we’re so friendly, you need some clothes, you need a place to stay, we’re gonna make it happen.’
When Watson protested at her remarks she told him: ‘So brother, I feel your pain, I’m trying not to be a (N-word), but you know I’m pro-Black.’
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called remarks ‘reprehensible’ and ‘extraordinarily inappropriate’.
‘I would hope that she would apologize for the remarks,’ he added.
‘I also think that people should recognize that immigrants in this country are all around us.
‘Virtually all of us came here from somewhere else.
‘So remarks like that are commentary on our entire society.’
The NAACP, founded in 1909 as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, describes its mission as support for ‘all marginalized people’.
But Carla Jackson-Campbell, secretary of the state NAACP, said the group was ‘still evaluating all of the information and awaiting more details’.
Illinois State Governor JB Pritzker denounced the remarks as ‘extraordinarily inappropriate’
‘Our mission is and always will be to achieve equity and political rights and social inclusion by advancing the needs of Black people,’ she added.
‘President Haley does embrace the mission of our beloved NAACP.’
Black residents made up most of the protesters who stormed a meeting of Chicago City Council last month as it debated whether it should retain its sanctuary city status.
And in September a group of Black homeowners protested outside the City Hall, calling on the city to redirect the funding spent on migrants to their neighborhoods.
The city plans to spend $150 million on migrant services in the first six months of 2024 alone at a time when campaigners estimate there are more than 50,000 homeless black people.
‘The South Side has been under-resourced, under-funded for years, for decades,’ community organizer Jessica Jackson said during the demonstration. ‘We have schools that need to be reopened.’
She continued: ‘For them to be sympathetic to their needs, saying it’s a humanitarian issue crisis when Black people have had a humanitarian crisis for housing, employment and everything else.
‘How do we get pushed to the back?’
Five years ago Haley had protested at the use of the N-word by colleagues, branding it ‘disrespectful’.
‘We are living in a time when people are changing, but the world still remains the same,’ she told a chapter meeting.
Haley who has a bachelors degree in ‘communication’ runs a training and consulting service and bills herself on its website as a ‘dynamic speaker’
She suggested ‘AI’ may have been used to doctor her words when reached on holiday in Dubai by WLS-Ch7, adding ‘With AI anything is possible’
‘The NAACP is not just about black folks sir, it is about all folks, working and living together and being respectful of one another.’
Watson admitted that others on the video call had raised concerns about migrants but said Haley was ‘the only one that used this derogatory, hateful language’
‘Thinking of the rich history of the NAACP, it’s the oldest civil rights organization in the country,’ he added.
‘And to have an Illinois state president engage in that type of rhetoric and that type of speech, I could have never imagined I would have heard that from a civil rights leader.’
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