FLINT, MI -- A white Flint city councilwoman who called her Black colleague’s actions “ghetto” says she is “very sorry for my choice of words.”
9th Ward Councilwoman Eva Worthing made the comment off her microphone during a committee meeting on Wednesday, May 4.
“It was a knee-jerk reaction. I said, ‘That’s ghetto’ under my breath ...,” Worthing said Friday, May 6. “I felt threatened” by “unprofessional and unsophisticated” comments made by 5th Ward Councilwoman Jerri Winfrey-Carter, who is Black.
Several members of the council called Worthing’s remark unprofessional and offensive after 6th Ward Councilwoman Tonya Burns heard the comment and repeated it.
“To say ghetto and to say it so easily and to laugh about it, that disturbs me,” Burns said. “That’s just wrong ... You teach children and you’re comfortable saying ghetto?”
In a Facebook statement, Worthing, a teacher at Michigan Virtual Charter Academy, said she has been on the receiving end of derogatory comments made by other council members for years.
“I have been called a nasty white woman, my children and occupation have been brought up and my white privilege has been mentioned solely to degrade my opinions,” her statement says. “I am very sorry for my choice of words. Those who know my heart know I would NEVER ever use someone’s race to degrade them. In this case, I said it because I was threatened in a very unprofessional manner by Jerri Winfrey-Carter. I used this term to describe actions by Carter that I found extremely unsophisticated.”
“No one can tell ME how I used that term but me and it is NOT a term that is inherently racist,” the statement says. “I normally do not use language like that in the first place. I am angry at myself ... I wish I had handled this better. I am very hard on myself. I’m still upset about it today. However, this one moment does not define me. I will continue to work hard for the residents of my ward.”
MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach Winfrey-Carter for additional comment on Friday.
The 5th Ward councilwoman was leading a committee meeting of the council on Wednesday when Worthing made the comment and was given a warning for her remark.
Worthing had been arguing to allow another council member to amend a motion to set a public hearing regarding council rules.
“Don’t get funny acting up in here,” Winfrey-Carter said at the time. “Because I’ll turn this out.”
Worthing said she was frustrated at the time because Winfrey-Carter “was being told how to chair by (1st Ward Councilman Eric) Mays and refused to ask our city clerk how to properly chair the meeting.”
The councilwoman appealed her warning from Winfrey-Carter but left the meeting before her appeal of the decision was dismissed.
Worthing was unopposed in her re-election campaign in November. She was first elected to council four years earlier.
Prior to her re-election she said in response to a questionnaire from The Journal that she’s been frustrated by the internal issues that have bogged down the City Council’s work for years.
“There is so much negativity, racism and spitefulness in the current council,” Worthing said at the time. “As leaders, we should be modeling the behavior that we want to see in our city. And unfortunately, that has yet to happen in the four years that I have been on council.”
Read more at The Flint Journal:
Unopposed Eva Worthing re-elected to 9th Ward Flint City Council seat
Gas prices are so high, Flint needs a budget transfer to keep up with rising costs
Downtown Flint’s historic bricks to get $5.2M facelift – all 750,000 of them
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