The mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, expressed her feelings about the city she oversees in a recently released poem.
On Wednesday, Mayor Nikuyah Walker released the poem, highlighting the city’s troubled past. Now, she is catching major heat from critics on social media.
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According to Walker, an original version was posted on Facebook but was flagged and removed. She then shared it on Twitter, writing, “is this better? I’m asking the person who reported my short poem to FB.”
“Charlottesville: The beautiful-ugly it is,” starts the poem. It goes on to bring up the city’s deep-rooted violence, including lynching, killing, and white supremacy.
During an exclusive interview with theGrio, Walker confessed a mountain of frustration that pushed her to write the poem.
“It’s the same fight we have been fighting for generations,” said Walker over the phone on Friday. “We are sitting in the capital of white supremacy and the more I push the more it pushes back. And in the past month, I feel like it has been winning.”
But despite her efforts to shed light on how deeply white supremacy impacts the everyday lives of Black people, she shares that many readers missed the message of the poem she penned from her home office.
The Mayor “loosely” compared her city to a sexual predator, which didn’t sit right with readers. “It rapes you, comforts you in its [graphic word deleted here] stained sheet and tells you to keep its secrets,” the poem reads.
Walker says she apologizes if the poem triggered victims of assault but stands by her choice of words.
“We die slow deaths every day [Black people] at the hands of these white supremacists, racist systems and the way it pillages our communities … Rape is the word I wanted to use and c*m stained sheets, I wanted you to be grossed out because you violate us … What we experience on a daily basis is no different than someone who is physically victimized, there is more than one meaning of rape.”
She then mentions victims of police brutality like Tamir Rice and Breonna Taylor. Walker believes we should not need the shocks of their deaths and many others to create change.
“We aren’t moving forward we are still debating and you shouldn’t need another example,” she said. “I’m sick of it.”
The public had their say about Walker’s poem, both good and bad.
“Of course Democrat voters elected a mayor who compares their city to a rapist. You guys wonder why your cities are in shambles. Might want to start drawing some connections here,” wrote one Twitter user.
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But others urged critics to listen to the message the mayor was trying to convey.
“Before trying to condemn her, perhaps all of the critics may want to listen…she’s trying to tell all of us a story. Born & raised there she has seen much…pay attention. She now has our attention NOW let’s listen,” wrote another user.
The mayor is also under scrutiny for allegedly using her city-issued credit card to gift individuals who have spoken at City Council meetings. She announced the investigation during a Facebook live last month, per The Daily Progress.
Walker is a native of the city and became mayor in November 2017. The mother of three graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a Political Science degree.
It is unclear what prompted the poem but she is a known crusader for racial and social justice. According to her website, she has “spent most of her adult life serving those most oppressed and neglected in this community.”
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As reported by theGrio, the mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio is looking for ways to fight racism.
De Blasio announced on Tuesday an 11-person panel will be responsible for deconstructing structural racism embedded in the City’s history. The new commission could include reparations for Black people, per CNN.
“We need to really deal with the unequal social landscape in the city,” said Rev. Al Sharpton about the new plan. “And I think this commission can document it, give it the data and then hopefully set targets on how we equalize it.”
He also added it’s a “step in the right direction.”
The new initiative plans to identify necessary policy changes and recommend revisions that will reflect equality. But some are questioning the mayor’s motive considering his term is almost up.
De Blasio said he has been working to invest tens of billions of dollars into working class communities of color. And changes are being made in police reform, education and affordable housing.
“That work followed through on the initial vision that I brought to office,” said de Blasio. “But what has happened in the meantime is a deeper understanding of the fact that institutional and structural racism require not just a set of policy changes or not even individual and profound acts of redistribution, but the entire structure now has to be questioned. Right down to each agency of city government.”
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