After ‘appalling racist behavior,’ KC groups want councilwoman to lose chair position
A coalition of predominantly Black churches and civil rights groups will call on Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas Thursday to strip Councilwoman Teresa Loar from her position as a committee chair because of “appalling racist behavior and blatant disrespect” for another councilwoman.
In a City Council meeting last month, the two council members — Loar, 2nd District at-large, and Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, 3rd District — clashed over whether to outsource the city’s animal control operations to KC Pet Project. Loar sponsored the resolution.
After Robinson voiced her opposition to the proposal, Loar stood up to respond.
“That was a very nice speech someone wrote you, Miss Robinson,” Loar said. “My guess it’s labor somewhere.”
On the floor, Robinson replied that she had an MBA and didn’t need anyone to write for her. She told Loar not to go after her intellect, at which point Loar made what Robinson said was a mocking physical gesture, placing her fists on her hips and shaking as though she were imitating someone angrily sniping.
In an interview with The Star Wednesday, Robinson said often times Black professionals’ intelligence is questioned. When Loar made the comment about her speech, Robinson started to question where it was coming from.
“It wasn’t until she started physically mocking me that I connected her behavior to racism, really mocking me and displaying me as an angry Black woman,” Robinson said. “It was hurtful. It was uncalled for. It was infuriating.”
Because of the gesture, the group wants Lucas to remove Loar from her post, according to a release distributed by Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City.
“On numerous occasions over the past few months, Councilwoman Loar has made public statements that perpetuate structural racism and disrespect the humanity of Black Americans,” the statement read. “There is no place for racists in leadership positions in City government.”
Loar’s committee, Transportation Infrastructure and Operations Committee, was meeting Wednesday when the release was issued. Approached afterward, she said she wasn’t sure she wanted to comment.
Informed of the subject of the press conference announced by Grant, Loar said, “She can ask whatever she wants to. I don’t care.” She then got on an elevator and left the 26th floor of City Hall.
Loar later provided a written statement and said she apologized to Robinson before that committee meeting started Wednesday morning.
“I know her to be a dedicated public servant who cares deeply about moving our city forward,” Loar said. “I respect her intelligence, her life experience and the strong leadership she brings to the City Council. I’ve learned in my 30 years as a public servant that we can accomplish much more for Kansas City by listening to each other, and even when we disagree, to do so with respect. In this instance, I fell short of that personal standard and I promise to do better in the future.”
In an open letter to City Council, local chapters of the Urban League, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and NAACP, three of the groups participating in the Thursday press conference, likened Loar’s gesture to a “Sapphire caricature.”
“The Sapphire caricature has its roots in early 20th Century minstrel shows. These racist portrayals of African American women as angry, irrational, ready to scream and fight, were usually played by obese white men in blackface to characterize Black women as grotesque, monstrous, and unfeminine. When anger is weaponized against Black women it is designed to silence them. It is designed to destroy Black women’s credibility, and to insinuate Black women are hypersensitive and overreacting.”
In an interview, Lucas said he believed Loar’s comments to be “uncalled for.”
“There is no reason to mock people,” Lucas said. “There is never any reason to ... attack your colleague for what is just a policy disagreement. All of us deserve some measure of respect.”
Lucas said he would listen to what the group has to say on Thursday. Punitive actions he might consider are the group’s request to take away her chair position. He also floated censuring her.
Asked if Loar’s action struck him as racist, he said it was “certainly uncalled for.”
“You certainly think of any interaction sometimes between people of different races and where things are coming from — you can certainly see a racial element to it, and that’s why I actually think it was important for Councilwoman Loar to apologize because I see that and saw that too as soon as I rewatched the video,” Lucas said.
Leaders with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, NAACP, Freedom, Inc., National Black United Front-KC Chapter, Black Rainbow, Urban Summit, United Believers Community Church, Concord Fortress of Hope Church, St. James United Methodist Church, Friendship Baptist Church, Calvary Temple Baptist Church, Centennial United Methodist Church, Second Missionary Baptist Church, Park Avenue Baptist Church, Paseo Baptist Church, and St. Mark Church were included in Grant’s request.
A virtual press conference on the matter will be held Thursday afternoon.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 6:00 PM.
