Candidate who made racist comment about Black people is elected to NC school board
.JPG "A new school board member faces backlash over an online post about Black people. Photographer: Scott Berson")
A candidate who wrote a racist Facebook comment about Black people was elected to an Eastern North Carolina school board.
The Onslow County Board of Education is facing calls to remove Eric Whitfield after his online post drew backlash in March. Whitfield has fired back, saying a petition that aims to get him off the board is “silly,” The Jacksonville Daily News reported Friday.
Whitfield, one of four Republicans who ran for school board seats in 2020, was commenting on a Facebook post from former Onslow County NAACP leader Al Burgess when he used the phrase “ignorant darkies” earlier this year, WNCT and WITN reported.
“He controls the ignorant darkies in his community,” the post said, according to screenshots from media outlets. “He can’t stand when they are out of his control.”
Whitfield’s comment, which went on to say “successful Black people minimize the power of community organizers like (Barack) Obama and Al,” was reportedly in reference to a post about then-candidate Mark Robinson, per WNCT. On Tuesday, Robinson was the projected winner in North Carolina’s lieutenant governor race, becoming the first Black person to hold the position in state history and the first Black Republican to win a major seat in the state since the 1800s.
Around the time Whitfield’s comment surfaced in March, he was fired from his job at Jacksonville Christian Academy, news outlets reported. Burgess also said Whitfield apologized to him.
“I’m a forgiving person, but I cannot look past the possibility of someone who refers to Black folks as ’ignorant darkies’ representing the citizens of Onslow County in any forum,” Burgess wrote on Facebook.
After Whitfield was elected Tuesday, new calls arose for the school board to stop him from taking the position. Internet users have said he shouldn’t have been elected, according to a proposal on ipetitions.com and Facebook screenshots from WNCT.
“This man should have no power over others,” one petitioner wrote. “He has made and continues to make abhorrent ignorant comments. I know the citizens of Onslow can’t have voted someone like this into office on purpose.”
Whitfield said he has the right to speak under the First Amendment, according to The Jacksonville Daily News.
“The signers of the petition are being dishonest,” he said, according to the newspaper. “They know people cannot be punished in our country for the things that they say. I’m not getting removed from office. They have no legal grounds at all.”
Onslow County Schools in a statement to WNCT said: “Our superintendent and executive staff look forward to working with the current and newly elected board members as we continue preparing our students to be globally competitive leaders and responsible citizens.”
The school district and Whitfield didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment on Friday.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 1:10 PM with the headline "Candidate who made racist comment about Black people is elected to NC school board."
