An Asian-American candidate for the Saint Paul, Minnesota, reparations commission has withdrawn her name after Black community leaders protested her hiring over concerns that she did not understand African Americans’ “lived experience” in the city.
On Tuesday, Black community leaders led a chant outside of Saint Paul’s City Hall condemning the City Council’s decision to hire a non-African American policy aide to staff the reparations commission.
Trahern Crews, a leader of the Saint Paul’s reparation movement, insisted the protest was “not about the person.”
“It’s just that we need somebody who has the lived experience, knowledge of reparations, knowledge of the racial wealth gap and how it impacts the descendants of slavery who reside in St. Paul,” Crews told Star Tribune.
BIDEN UNDER PRESSURE TO ACT ON REPARATIONS AS MOVEMENT TO MAKE AMENDS FOR SLAVERY GAINS STEAM
A boy holds a sign calling for reparations on the 106th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide during a protest outside of the Turkish Ambassadors Residence in Washington, DC on April 24, 2021. ((Photo by SAMUEL CORUM/AFP via Getty Images))
Black Lives Matter Twin Cities leader Chauntyll Allen, who also serves as a Saint Paul school board member, agreed with others at the Tuesday newscast that the City Council needs to take a second look at the applicant pool and consider qualified Black candidates. They also suggested the council repost the job position and recruit African-American candidates.
President of the African American Leadership Council Tyrone Terrill called the decision to hire Jennifer Lor, who currently serves as a policy aide for Council Member Nelsie Yang, “total disrespect for the Black community.
“We’re not going to stand for it,” he added.
Hours after the protest involving Black community leaders, Lor withdrew her name from consideration for the position.
A sign demanding reparations in California. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The council posted a job listing for the senior policy aide in early June, which noted the person hired would spend half their working hours on reparations policy while also working as the council’s district liaison.
“That in and of itself is a problem — the fact that we can’t be allotted a full-time position to work on something that’s so much work, so deeply rooted and so historical,” Allen said. “We’re talking 400 years of oppression that needs to be addressed.”
Reacting to concerns from Black leaders, the lead author of the reparations ordinance, Council Member Jane Prince, said she had little involvement in the hiring process for the aide position.
A protester during a march for reparations in Minnesota. Demands for reparations for African Americans have grown throughout the country in recent years. ((Photo by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images))
“The council failed its first reparations test by our failure to recognize the African American community’s investment in a representative process,” Prince said.
She added that the commission will be able to advise the selection process from now on and called Lor a “smart, talented and highly capable professional.”
In January, the council voted to create an advisory board that would make recommendations and budget decisions to city leaders related to reparations for descendants of enslaved people. In June, the commission appointed 11 members.
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The commission plans to hold its first official meeting later this year.
The City Council and Jennifer Lor did not immediately return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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