How San Francisco got Trumped. And Everybody Lost.
The Trump playbook is alive and well, even in ultra-liberal bastions like San Francisco.
A few years ago, a charismatic and aspiring politician made some inflammatory comments about an influential group of constituents. The comments surfaced just as this person was rising in power as a populist leader. The media had a field day, and the infamous comments became the story that everyone talked about. Lines were quickly drawn. The party establishment called for this person to step down. The community responded in kind, voicing their disapproval on the streets, in civic forums, and on social media. A few staunch defenders claimed that the comments were blown out of proportion. Although the person issued an apology (which many found lacking), they refused to step back, and doubled down on their resolve to be a champion of the people. They rallied their supporters, condemned their critics, and claimed they were a victim of a witch hunt. Lawsuits followed, and the essential work of the government was consumed by this controversy.
While Donald “grab ’em by the p***y” Trump may come to mind, this story is about someone who comes from the opposite end of the specturm, both geographically and politically. This drama is unfolding in my beloved home of San Francisco — and the protagonist is a radical progressive.
How San Francisco got Trumped
Meet Alison Collins, a Commissioner on San Francisco Board of Education. Ms. Collins identifies as “a Black woman, a mother, an educator, and a fierce advocate of equity in our schools.” In 2018, Ms. Collins was elected to the school board as the most endorsed candidate on the ballot. During her tenure, she sponsored numerous resolutions that benefitted students of color.The School Board unanimously elected her as Vice-President in January, 2021. Two months later, tensions long simmering boiled over, when a series of anti- Asian tweets from Ms. Collins emerged. These tweets, dating back to 2016, came to light on the day after the mass shooting in Atlanta that killed six Asian women.
In the ensuing fallout, her fellow commissioners stripped her of the Vice-Presidency and committee appointments by a vote of 5 to 2. The following week, Ms. Collins filed a law suit against her five colleagues and the San Francisco Unified School District for $87 million, claiming they violated her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.
As a parent, constituent, and person of Asian-Pacific Islander descent, I was deeply offended by these tweets. That said, I wasn’t willing to cancel Alison Collins solely because of them. She wrote these words years ago when she was a private citizen, and she deserved the opportunity to explain herself, apologize, and rebuild any trust that had been broken.
Instead, Alison Collins adopted the Trump strategy, and engaged in a scorched earth campaign to malign her opponents and redeem herself. While I was willing to give her another chance, the actions she took following the tweet debacle severed my trust in her ability to represent the people of San Francisco. Here is how she employed the Trump strategy -
Issue an apology-not-an-apology
Restorative practices call for sincere contrition from the person who has harmed others. For many Asians and Pacific Islanders, as well as her colleagues on the school board, Ms. Collins’ apology fell short.
She claimed to regret that her words had been “taken out of context . . .causing more pain for those who are already suffering. For the pain my words may have caused I am sorry.” She sidestepped the opportunity to express authentic remorse and instead set herself up as a victim who would seek to misconstrue her meaning.
The majority of Ms. Collins’ colleagues on the School Board believed her apology was inadequate. For example, Commissioner Matt Alexander said — “In moments like this, I also believe leadership requires admitting mistakes and listening very deeply to people who have been harmed and showing humility and making amends. To be honest, I haven’t seen that in a meaningful way.”
Double Down
More than fifty community leaders, current and former elected officials, including the Mayor and the President of the Board of Supervisors (both of whom are African American), called for Ms. Collins to resign. Nearly 29,000 people signed a petition calling for her resignation, vs. 910 who signed a petition supporting her. Ms.Collins appeared unphased by the rebuke. Instead, she doubled down much as Trump had in the wake of the revelation of his 2016 “p***y grabbing” remarks.
Ms. Collins commented that, “So much of who I am and how I am in this world has gotten lost due to this targeted smear to label me as a racist. I am a Black woman. I’m a mother. I’m an educator. All of these (words) mean I have no choice but to fight.”
To date, Ms. Collins remains firmly committed to staying on the School Board, and she has not deleted her tweets.
Rewrite the Narrative
Ms.Collins and her supporters endeavored to tell a new story — that her comments had been “taken out of context.” Her attorney recast her comments as “seasoned social metaphor.” In a statement from the San Francisco NAACP, they wrote that “the city wants to cancel (Ms. Collins) for a handful of statements she made five years ago,” and “those who are doing so are utterly miscasting an expression…presenting it as supposed evidence of deeply harbored racism.”
This narrative rang false. If Ms. Collins was looking to provide context through a seasoned social metaphor, she probably shouldn’t have communicated via Twitter, which is not known for nuance. And if a non-Black person equated Asian Americans with the n-word, would the NAACP dismiss it as a “handful of statements?”
Condemn the opponents
Through her attorneys, Ms. Collins accused her colleagues of making “reckless, intentional, malicious slanderous comments,” against her, causing “clear and present danger, harm, and injuries to Ms. Collins, her husband, and her children.” (Collins Complaint, section 37)
She also claimed that her colleagues conspired to “embark on a plan to discredit Ms. Collins because of her speech and advocacy for Black and Latino parents…” (Collins Complaint, 47). And they perpetuated the “BIG LIE that MS. COLLINS was racist against Asians,” causing “irreparable damage to (her) good name and stellar reputation…” (Collins Complaint section 38).
She accused one of her closest allies, Commissioner Faauuga Moliga, of being reckless and malicious when he said, “Commissioner Collins’ statements were not only hurtful but racist and I am calling it for what it is. These past few days have been heartbreaking for our communities. We cannot endeavor to build a safe space if the trust between our leaders and those who serve is broken.”
Play the victim
One of Donald Trump’s favorite tropes was “witch hunt.” By late 2019, he had tweeted the term over 300 times, and referred to his second impeachment as “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”
Ms. Collins’ attorney adopted Trump’s strategy by writing, “When Ms. Collins refused to resign, Defendants lit their torches, sprinting to judgment in less than 24 hours with less due process than given to the victims of the Malleus Maleficarum,” referring to the 15th-century text used to try, torture, and kill those accused of witchcraft. (Collins complaint, section 9).
She and her attorney went further by portraying her as a martyr for the movement –
“(Her colleagues) opted to ‘burn’ the messenger, using a pretzel-twisted redirection of Ms. Collins’ seasoned social metaphors aimed at uniting all marginalized, colonized and racially oppressed people against racism and racial oppression.” (Collins Complaint, section 4)
“So much of who I am and how I am in this world has gotten lost due to this targeted smear campaign to label me as a racist to slow the stop of equity that I have engaged in over the years,” — Alison Collins, March 31, 2021.
Resort to litigation
The premise of her 2016 tweetstorm was that Asian Americans use “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and get ahead.” Ms. Collins has consistently and passionately advocated for a different path to justice — one that aligns with the principles of restorative practices.
However, she filed an $87 million dollar lawsuit against the School District and her colleagues on the School Board for violating her first and fourteenth amendment rights, abandoning any alignment with the restorative practices that she had claimed to uphold. Her approach, contrary to the restorative model, used white supremacist thinking to force the parties into a litigious, us vs. them/winner-take-all paradigm. Her tactics ran contrary to approaches that she, herself, espoused just two months ago -
By resorting to these strategies, Alison Collins trumped San Francisco, driving wedges throughout the community.
Ms. Collins drove a wedge between members of the school board paralyzing efforts to get kids back to in-class learning, to hire a new superintendent (Dr. Vincent Matthews announced his retirement before this drama occurred), to address a massive deficit, or to continue the essential work of racial equity and justice. With pending litigation, how can the Commissioners possibly convene a public board meeting next week?
Ms. Collins drove a wedge between the Black and Asian Pacific Islander community. At a time when tensions between these communities are at an all-time high, Ms. Collins threw fuel on the fire. Is it a coincidence that there has been an increase in violence and vandalism on the city’s Asian residents in the past week? Is it a coincidence that a local “slap an Asian” challenge surfaced in tandem with the media storm caused by Ms. Collins?
Ms. Collins drove a wedge between leaders in the San Francisco’s Black community. The local NAACP decided to stand with Alison Collins, and her lawsuit. Mayor London Breed and President (of the Board of Supervisors) Shamann Walton who are both African American — have denounced Ms. Collins and called for her resignation. It seems as if the NAACP and the most powerful elected officials in the city are at odds. Where does that leave the Black community?
Ms. Collins drove a wedge between the school district and its ability to serve students. With k-5 students returning to in-person learning on April 12th, staff is focused on preparing lessons, classrooms, transportation, etc. Ms. Collins’ lawsuit, and the surrounding drama of the past weeks, have taken away valuable human and financial resources from the district at a time when everything needs to be focused on getting students back in schools.
Ms. Collins drove a wedge between students and adults. Students have expressed frustration, weariness, and anger about the situation. At a recent school board meeting, one student said, “A lot of students have stayed away from this because a lot of you are nasty, very nasty in how you engage in this conversation and bring in this topic. A lot of us feel like it isn’t our place to be engaged, because we don’t want to be swept over or taken in or attacked as a casualty.”
Another student said, “I understand the message she’s trying to get to, just anti-Blackness in the Asian community…but the way she said it is atrocious. After a long time of incessantly calling people out for even the most minor faults, the moment people retaliate for her own racist actions, she sues the very body that she represents.”
“This is not how we resolve conflict. The students are watching.”
- Ms. Virginia Marshall, Alliance of Black School Educators, March 25, 2021
In spite of many good accomplishments during her tenure, Alison Collins engaged in divisive tactics and behaviors that will tarnish her legacy. She will be known as the person who burned bridges instead of building them, and as the person who tried to bankrupt the very institution she was entrusted to lead. Alison Collins can blame no one but herself for those actions. While she may or may not be labeled a racist, she has certainly earned the title of hypocrite.
For the good of the students she swore to serve, I hope Allison Collins heeds the words of her mentor (Ms. Marshall), and sets an example for the students who are watching by admitting she caused harm, apologizing for her actions, and resigning from the School Board. As we are discovering in this post-Trump era, we can and will heal, restore, and begin anew.
Questions Reflection and Consideration
1. Do you believe that people who call for Alison Collins to resign are racist/Anti-Black? Why or why not?
2. What would you say to a 12-year old student who asked you why Ms. Collins is suing the disctrict for $87 million?
3. Regardless of whether Ms. Collins resigns or not, how can the community move toward healing and restoration?
For more information on this story please read —
Alison Collins’ Strange and Terrible $87M Lawsuit
