Abilene councilman McAlister apologizes for past social media posts
Amid demands that he resign, Councilman Kyle McAlister apologized Wednesday afternoon for what have been labeled racist Facebook postings, saying he was repentant.
However, he did not plan to step vacate his Place 5 Abilene City Council seat. His Place 5 seat is up for re-election in May, and McAlister, elected in 2013, already has indicated his intention to run again.
Speaking in council chambers and joined by Mayor Anthony Williams, McAlister said he would initiate a vote to censure himself at the Jan. 24 council meeting, acknowledging that he had become a “distraction” to important business that presently faces the city.
“I will ask that I be censured,” he said. “I will make that motion, and I will be the first one to cast that vote.”
McAlister’s central message was one born in cliché, but one he said he sincerely believes:
“When you mess up, you ‘fess up.”
More:Hispanic leaders, representatives of LULAC, call for Kyle McAlister’s resignation
McAlister addresses his posts
About an hour later, members of the Hispanic community gathered on the steps of city hall, calling for McAlister to resign.
“This kind of racial commentary is unacceptable,” said Samuel Garcia, who gathered with others to protest McAlister’s social media posting. “It will not go unnoticed nor excused as humorous banter.”
Posts on McAlister’s Facebook page from both before and after he became a councilman in 2013 have been tagged by local LULAC officials and others in the Hispanic community as displaying racial insensitivity.
McAlister, who issued an earlier apology on Facebook, said it had been a “rough 24 hours,” since accusations surfaced Tuesday. That led to Williams and McAlister having what McAlister termed a “good heart-to-heart,” though a difficult one.
“I do realize that many of those comments, going back nine years, have caused the people in this community a lot of pain and a lot of confusion,” McAllister said. “…. It was thoughtless, it was insensitive, and it shows no understanding of what a lot of people have gone through and what a lot of people continue to go through. Not my intention, but it happened.”
That said, he noted he was looking forward to continuing to serve the city, promising to “be more mindful of what I find humorous.”
“My sense of humor is not the same as anyone else’s,” he said, also pledging to be far more self-aware and sensitive as what he posts on the Internet.
Some will forgive him, some will not, he said.
“And I’m not here expecting forgiveness,” he said. “What I am asking is that we all look inward at ourselves and our past comments to ensure that as we move forward, it’s where we want to go – it’s where we want to take ourselves.”
Mayor: Comments ‘not acceptable’
Williams said he met earlier with McAlister and called the posts “not only inappropriate” but “offensive.”
“They offended me, and in the strongest way I can I want to condemn those posts,” Williams said. “It is not acceptable.”
The council holds itself accountable and “will do so in this situation,” he said.
“I’m embarrassed for this city. I’m embarrassed for Councilman McAlister,” Williams said. “This is not who we are. There is an expectation that I have for this council. And we are going to hold all of this council accountable to those expectations.”
The story broke Tuesday when McAlister posted on his personal and his campaign Facebook page that a “local organization,” which turned out to be Abilene’s LULAC chapter, had gone to media outlets accusing him of being racist.
Here’s what he posted
McAlister is a referee for soccer games, a fact that colors many of the targeted posts.
Among the Facebook postings highlighted by LULAC and others are:
► Other team called for “illegal defense.” Well, they are from the Rio Grande Valley…
► “When the D-H-S agent says, ‘Do you have anything in your car?’ The incorrect answer is: ‘You mean besides the Mexicans.'”
► “If you see Hispanics standing in a parking lot, they are most likely waiting for work. If you see Whites standing in a parking lot, they are most (likely) waiting for [a] Harry Potter Movie.”
► One fan kept yelling “C’mon jello!” Either he was Hispanic and was complaining about us, the officials. Or he was anticipating a delicious, jiggly dessert.
► Coach kept yelling for his kids to “chute, chute!” The Anglos had no idea what to do.
► Wearing an orange shirt at a Mexican food place. Hope they don’t spit in my food.
Responses to McAlister’s posts ranged from overt support of the councilman to open criticism.
Pete Acosta wrote that “being a Latino and having (to) read such statements or remarks made by a city leader has me as a Latino disrespected.”
“This person should (be) excused from being a city leader,” Acosta wrote. “He should know better. But when one has such a thought of other cultures … the truth will eventually come out as it has for him. Yes, he should step down!!”
Jud Beall wrote that McAlister “could be more thoughtful about some of (his) Facebook post(s).”
“I think many of your post(s) could certainly be viewed as hateful, offensive, maybe even racist,” Beall wrote. “But I don’t think Kyle the person is racist.”
Kyle being Kyle?
By contrast, Adrian Aguilera said that “as a Hispanic, I’ve not seen one racist post from you (shared or originated) in the years that we’ve been in touch on (Facebook).”
“Some peoples’ only job is to instigate trouble or play the racist card, they’ve got nothing better in life than to be a hindrance to harmony,” Aguilera said.
Linda Fagan admonished McAlister that “from the racist comments that you have made, I am saying that you need more sensitivity, more common sense, and much better judgment.”
Former city of Abilene spokeswoman Cheryl Sawyers wrote that “many of us could look back at comments made 4, 5, 6, and even 10 years back and see how they don’t pass the 2019 test.”
“It’s important for all of us to check our ‘past self’ and make sure our growth is what shows not something said years prior,” she wrote.
About that sombrero …
In regard to McAlister appearing in a photo in a serape and a sombrero that was being circulated on social media, Abilene restaurant Taco Casa on Wednesday posted that the image was “was taken from an advertising stunt” Taco Casa shared with Chick-fil-A.
“We asked Mr. McAlister if he would oblige us and be a representative of our ‘mascot’ as Taco Casa made a marriage proposal to ‘The (Chik-fil-A) Cow.’ We know Mr. Kyle McAlister and his family and we can attest to the fact that he, nor any member of his family, have ever had a racist bone in their bodies.”
The restaurant posted that it does not “condone some of the comedic posts” McAlister has shared.
“(But) we know he is a kind and loving man to all people,” the restaurant posted.
Public comment
Go to reporternews.com to read how social media comments about Councilman Kyle McAlister’s postings and his apology.
link