Former Board Member Censured for Use of Racial Slur

A former Anne Arundel County Public Schools elected official has been censured for using racial slurs to criticize a decision by former interim Superintendent Mamie Perkins, an African-American.

Anne Arundel County board of education members voted 6-0 on July 9 to censure former member Eugene Peterson, who is a member of the system’s ethics panel. Peterson says he will resign from the ethics panel. He served on the county school board from 2002-2012.

The motion stems from a June 4 meeting during which Peterson made comments regarded as racial slurs, according to The Baltimore Sun. Board vice president Patricia Nalley moved for the censure, saying Peterson’s comments were “inappropriate and startling” and “demonstrated his poor judgment and his willingness to employ derogatory and despicable language to describe highly regarded and well respected public officials.”

During the June 4 meeting, Perkins proposed plans to reorganize the Office of Equity and Human Relations, the Sun reports. She announced the creation of a new Office of Equity and Accelerated Student Achievement to monitor minority students’ achievements.

Peterson, who opposed the new office, accused other board members of “hiding behind Stepin Fetchit and Aunt Jemima,” according to the newspaper. The references are widely regarded as offensive racial slurs toward African-Americans.

“We were all offended. I had to get up and leave in tears,” Nalley told the Sun. “Many people disagree with us all the time. You disagree respectfully, and you don’t attack with racial slurs, and that was racism at its highest.”

>>>Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun.