A top civil rights leader in Illinois has been pressured to resign from her post in the NAACP after spewing discriminatory remarks against immigrants—ironically—during a leadership meeting on Zoom.
NAACP Illinois State Conference President Teresa Haley was recorded in a virtual meeting calling migrants “savages” and claiming they are raping people in the Chicago-community.
In an interview with The Daily Beast Wednesday, former NAACP DuPage County President Patrick Watson said top NAACP leaders throughout Illinois met for a meeting on Oct. 26. Haley, who also leads the Springfield chapter, presided over the meeting.
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“The comments came up when some of the Chicago-based presidents started to talk about the migrant crisis, the funding that was going into neighborhoods, and they had differing opinions from my own. It's OK to have differing opinions,” Watson said. “They had different opinions about some of the resources that were going to the community, that resources weren't going towards individuals within the community, even though those resources are coming from different sources… That's OK to have a different opinion. But President Haley engaged in what I would call absolute hate speech.”
In a recording Watson provided to The Daily Beast, members of the meeting are seen discussing the influx of migrants in Chicago.
“What’s happening in Chicago is a shame,” Haley says, “and it’s a crime,”
She and others explain how the Black community of Chicago is lacking resources; meanwhile, they claim migrants receive more attention and care from state and federal authorities.
“The busloads are coming, and we’re seeing families on the street,” Haley says.
She pointed out that homeless Black people have not received the same help as migrants because of stereotypes of Black people on the streets as “drug addicts” and people battling mental health issues.
Oddly enough, Haley then dishes her own set of negative generalizations about migrants.
“But these immigrants we got coming over here, they been raping people, they been breaking into homes. They’re like savages as well,” Haley says. “They don’t speak the language, and they look at [Black people] like we’re crazy because we were the only people in America who were brought over here against our wills and were slaves, sold into slavery.
“I’m trying not to be a n----,” Haley jokes, attempting to excuse her rant.
“I was absolutely horrified,” Watson told The Daily Beast. “I worked as an advocate for immigrant and refugee rights, pushing Congress to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform. …To think that this is someone who is perceived as a leader in the African American community here, within the civil rights movement, and she would be openly saying these things about another group of marginalized people, it was reprehensible.”
Watson said Haley’s comments were “exactly word for word” with what former President Trump has said at his political rallies.
“It felt as though I was listening to another prominent national figure instead of the state president of the oldest civil rights organization in this country,” he said.
Interestingly, before diving into U.S. immigration at the meeting, Haley talked about the Gaza-Israel war and how her Jewish cousin has been treated “like a terrorist” and that she had family members who were “so black, they were blue.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Haley’s comments were “reprehensible” and that he expected her to apologize.
“I also think that people should recognize that immigrants in this country are all around us,” he told The Seattle Times. “Virtually all of us came here from somewhere else. So remarks like that are commentary on our entire society. Extraordinarily inappropriate.”
Watson said the meeting in October was not the only time Haley made questionable statements.
“She made comments about the LGBTQ community,” Watson explained. “She spoke about a conference call that she was on where there were individuals that had their pronouns. … And she said something along the lines of, ‘The national organization is becoming more diverse. We've got people there that want to be called they, them, it. What the hell is that?’”
But he said the xenophobic statements were the “final, final straw.”
On Tuesday, Watson submitted his resignation as president of the DuPage chapter, claiming the October meeting “was not the only time” Haley “uses her powerful platform in a manner that sets up a destructive atmosphere.”
“We live with the horror of persons being shot, shot at, exploited, shunned, burned out of houses and homes, and murdered due to being immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, being Black, surviving being Black and male in hostile environments,” Watson issued in a press release of his resignation and provided to The Daily Beast. “A person in a leadership position should exercise care of her heart and words and not be flippant when speaking about how the LGBTQIA community wants to be described and acknowledged.”
He went on to say that he could no longer work under Haley nor her “abhorrent” speech.
Watson explained that the Midwest region of the NAACP is conducting elections for the national board through December. After his resignation as president, Watson told The Daily Beast that the DuPage County chapter of the NAACP voted to promote Haley to NAACP’s national board of directors.
“After hearing this, many of them were on the call and heard it live,” Watson said. “How could they lend their legitimacy to this? And I would ask that of all members and anyone that's present within that branch: How can you lend your legitimacy to this kind of hate?”
According to Haley’s LinkedIn profile, she previously served on a county board for Habitat for Humanity and has been the state president of the NAACP since 2015. She’s currently serving her third term in the position.
Neither Haley, the Springfield Chapter of the NAACP, nor the Illinois State Conference of the NAACP immediately returned The Daily Beast’s request for comment Wednesday.
However, while on vacation in Dubai, Haley told ABC 7 Chicago that she didn’t make the statements that appear in the video.
“With AI, anything is possible,” she told the local news outlet.
“She has a history of twisting the truth,” Watson told The Daily Beast.
