Oak Park Township Supervisor Tim Thomas said he was called a racial slur multiple times by residents in the lead up to this week’s annual town meeting
Thomas, the highest ranking Black elected official in Oak Park, posted on Facebook the day before Oak Park residents were set to vote on a controversial measure concerning boycotts to Israel at Oak Park Township’s annual meeting Tuesday night. His post described multiple incidents where residents called him a racial slur.
“I’m a Black man who was a Jewish fraternity leader and who’s been a long time DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) member,” Thomas wrote online. “I’m a walking contradiction to most people’s reality and yet in the community that has elected me, I’m still a Racist N—-r. Remember that tomorrow when you come to vote. I’m literally trying to follow the law. Yes, this has been said to me multiple times.”
He addressed the incidents to Wednesday Journal shortly before votes were counted Tuesday night.
“Folks have been very passionate about their feelings when it comes to this issue and I’ve received a lot of those big feelings in ways that were very unexpected of my community and very unexpected in how they were delivered,” he said. “Folks need to know how we treat each other, and so that’s why I shared it. Bad behavior needs to be called out, and bad behavior needs to be put on front street, so that folks know that this is the community that we live in and that we actually don’t have to treat each other this way.”
“I took this job for a reason. I love this job, and I love the work and so I’ll just kind of leave it there, but I’m unapologetic about sharing my lived experience.”
The question on this year’s meeting agenda was “do you support the right of individuals and organizations, including state contractors, to boycott, divest and sanction Israel?” The measure failed at the meeting Tuesday, with more than 70% of voters in attendance voting against it.
If the measure had passed, the same question would’ve been posed to all voters in Oak Park on this November’s ballot.
A resident petition gathered enough signatures to put the matter on the agenda as the Illinois legislature considers repealing a 2015 law banning state pension funds from being invested in companies that divest from or boycott Israel.