SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – There are growing calls for the San Francisco school board vice president to resign after previous tweets appearing to be biased against Asians surfaced.

In 2016, Alison Collins posted several tweets accusing Asian Americans of using white supremacy to get ahead of their Black colleagues.

Collins also allegedly used a racial slur.

In a statement, fellow school board member Jenny Lam, who is the only Chinese American member on the board, asked Collins to step down, adding in part “Collins must address her racist comments.”

On Saturday, AAPI and local community leaders released the following statement:

We are outraged and sickened by the racist, anti-Asian statements tweeted by School Board Vice President Alison Collins that recently came to light. No matter the time, no matter the place, and no matter how long ago the tweets were written, there is no place for an elected leader in San Francisco who is creating and/or created hate statements and speeches. Regardless of how these tweets came to light and when they occurred, they must be reckoned with and acknowledge the trauma they have created among our AAPI community and our public school community.

Alison Collins’ words inflict deeper wounds on our AAPI community. These words, though written several years ago, are part of a public record and broader history of anti-Asian, anti-immigrant sentiments, violence, and laws in our City and our country. And now, in the City of San Francisco and in the year of 2021, we are faced with a public official that has given a contemporary voice to this shameful history.

The tweets perpetuate gross and harmful stereotypes, calling Asian American parents “Tiger Moms” and dismissing the experience of thousands of Asian American children in San Francisco, and millions across the country when she claimed that, “many Asian Am. believe they benefit from the “model minority” BS.” 

The tweets reveal the adoption of a false narrative that paint Asian Americans as complicit, ignorant and weak, saying that Asian Americans “actively promote these [model minority] myths. They use white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead,’” and, “Don’t Asian Americans know they’re on [Trump’s] list as well?” 

There is no nuance or potential misunderstanding in these racial slurs. The use of the term “house n****r” is shocking and damaging to everyone, regardless of race. These sentiments pit racial groups against each other when now more than ever, we must stand in solidarity with each other. Alison Collins’ tweets appear to decry anti-Blackness at the expense of anti-Asianness. As leaders of San Francisco, we reject this toxic paradigm. We need words to lead, words to inspire, and words to heal. 

The mindset represented in Alison Collins’ tweets have no place in City leadership and especially not in leading our public schools, where 33% are Asian American. School board policy cannot be made through the lens of anti-Asianness. Someone who denigrates broad swathes of our City’s people has no place leading our schools and representing our students.

San Francisco stands with its AAPI community. We, the co-signers, are here to uplift, celebrate and protect all of our diverse communities and especially our Asian American brothers and sisters during this wave of anti-Asian hate crimes. 

Therefore, we thank Commissioner Collins for her service and respectfully ask her to resign from her post so that we can all get back on track to reopen our schools safely as soon as possible.

Mayor Breed has also vocalized her support, saying “our students and our API community deserve better.”