Official apologizes for what Frank White calls a ‘racist attack’ in Royals stadium fight
Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca apologized Friday on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, for an “insensitive comment” he posted on the platform aimed at County Executive Frank White Jr. White and others said the post was racist and reflected “a broader, troubling environment” surrounding the upcoming stadiums tax vote.
Abarca made the critical comment Thursday night in response to a post from 610am sports radio talk show host Bob Fescoe criticizing White for slowing the county’s negotiations with the Chiefs and Royals over a new stadiums sales tax ballot issue to be decided on April 2.
“The county executive has had a stadium plan on his desk for over 2 years. He never acted and now wants to pass the buck to the teams,” Fescoe wrote, reacting to news that White had on Thursday asked the teams to cover the $1 million cost of having the election.
Abarca responded by saying it was White’s way of getting even with the Royals for the organization’s treatment of him after he retired from playing baseball. White worked for the Royals as a coach and broadcaster in the years before he became Jackson County’s first Black county executive.
“And he has waited since his last team contract expiration to seek his revenge... let’s call a spade a spade.”
One commenter called the post a “dog whistle.” The word “spade” is considered by many to be a racist slur against Black people.
White called the post “overtly racist.” In a letter he sent Friday to Chiefs owner Clark Hunt and Royals majority owner John Sherman, White said the comment reflected a “broader, troubling environment fostered, in part, by the narrative and strategy your organizations have chosen to adopt” in attempting to get voter approval for a sales tax to help pay for a new Royals ballpark and renovations at Arrowhead Stadium.
“The purposeful decision to frame me as the villain in this discourse — particularly given my history as the first African American County Executive in Jackson County — has set a dangerous precedent,” he wrote the team owners. “The campaign strategy your organizations have adopted has, through its actions and narratives, created an environment where racially charged and personal attacks are now seen as valid political tools.”
On KCUR’s Up to Date program on Thursday, Sherman praised White for his accomplishments during his playing career, but accused him of obstructing stadium negotiations, largely blaming White for the lack of a lease deal or community benefits agreement between the team and the county for a new Royals stadium less than a month away from Election Day.
“It was a frustrating process,” Sherman said. “He would not engage, would not sit down at the table, refused to negotiate.”
The teams ended up going around White and negotiating directly with Abarca and other members of the county legislature. On its social media feed last week, the campaign committee supporting the sales tax asked, “Is Frank White really doing everything he can to keep the Chiefs and Royals in Jackson County?”
White asked Hunt and Sherman to dial back that kind of rhetoric with a little more than two weeks before the election.
“I urge both of you to personally issue public statements condemning Legislator Abarca’s racist attack against me,” his letter says. “Such statements will send a powerful message that racism and dishonesty have no place in our community, nor in the campaigns and narratives that shape our public discourse.”
In response to White’s letter, the Royals and Chiefs issued the following statement:
“The Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals stand firmly against racism in all its forms. Racism has no place in our society. We are united in condemning all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice – as we have always done.”
The campaign’s social media account on X went further, however, quoting the teams’ statement and then added the following swipe at White’s motivation for writing the letter:
“We are saddened that an unpopular and desperate politician has chosen this regrettable tactic in attempt to distract the voters of Jackson County from the opportunity to continue our 50-year partnership. With approval on April 2, our teams will invest more than $1.3 billion into this project and hundreds of millions of dollars into the Jackson County community.
“Unlike the last few years, perhaps the County Executive will appreciate the progress we’ve made on our leases with the Jackson County Sports Authority and will promptly consider them.”
Voters are being asked whether they support the repeal of the 3/8th-cent sales tax passed in 2006 that paid for renovations of Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums, as well as continuing financial support for the teams’ operations, repairs and maintenance of those venues, which they lease from Jackson County. In place of that tax, which is set to end in 2031, the ballot issue authorizes a new 3/8th-cent tax that would last for 40 years, until 2064.
Abarca said in his Friday post that he did not have racist intent and had been unaware that “spade” has for a century or more been a racist term akin to calling a Black person the N-word.
“Here’s a reality that I became aware of yesterday,” Abarca wrote. “I apologize to those who I offended and to the executive for inadvertently making an insensitive comment. It is beyond ability to edit, but deleting the post only creates a phantom departure from accountability and sincerity. Thus, I attach my apology and article that educated me. I had only heard this phrase in association to the card game, and thus the context I was using it in.”
The article he referenced was from the Code Switch team at National Public Radio, which explained the origin of the phrase, how it had taken on racial overtones in the past century and, therefore, was best to avoid using lest it be perceived as racist.
Abarca declined further comment when contacted by a Star reporter Friday morning.
Although both are Democrats, the 1st District legislator’s relationship with White has grown increasingly adversarial over a variety of issues in the 14-plus months since Abarca was sworn into office. He’s been critical of White’s budget priorities and what he and many others consider White’s mishandling of the countywide property tax reassessment process.
During the legislature’s weekly meetings, White has often admonished Abarca for what he considers the disrespectful and condescending tone of Abarca’s questions and remarks directed at him.
But in public and online, Abarca’s criticism of White’s approach to the stadiums tax issue has been especially heated. White claimed throughout the negotiations he was looking out for the best interests of the taxpayers, while Abarca accused him of trying to sabotage the talks.
In support of putting the tax on the ballot before leases and community benefit agreements were negotiated, Abarca posted online a series of seven deadlines that the teams needed to meet for the tax to have his support. Of those, the teams only met one: the selection of a site for a proposed new ballpark in the East Crossroads.
Community benefits agreement in the balance
On his Thursday radio show appearance, Sherman said he hoped he can soon announce that the teams have signed new leases with the county, and he said a detailed letter of understanding will be in hand before Election Day describing what would be in a community benefits agreement. He did not promise the contracts would be finalized by then.
But on Friday afternoon, two of the groups negotiating with the teams on a community benefits agreement announced that those talks are not going well.
“The window for negotiating a robust, powerful and transformative CBA with the Royals and the Chiefs is quickly closing,” the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom and the Missouri Workers Center said in a letter to the teams.
They said that the “racial and economic justice” agenda of those organizations as part of the Good Jobs and Affordable Housing for All Coalition was not being adequately reflected at the broader, county-sponsored bargaining sessions with the teams, especially as it pertains to affordable housing. And so the coalition would from now on go it alone, negotiating separate from the county process to advance their goals.
“The yawning gap between what we believe to be reasonable and what the Teams believe is their obligation regarding an affordable housing agreement has seeded overwhelming doubt that such an agreement is anywhere within reach without a dramatic shift from the teams,” the letter said.
Tuesday is the coalition’s deadline for the teams to reach an agreement and receive the coalition’s support of the ballot measure. The Royals are also in negotiations with Kansas City Public Schools over the potential loss of revenue to the district if the baseball stadium team is built in the East Crossroads area, as the team intends. The Royals are also in talk with the Crossroads Community Association on issues such as the association’s push for establishing a community improvement district to address issues such as neighborhood security.
This story was originally published March 15, 2024 at 1:14 PM.
