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[C]ritics of Mohamed Jafar, whose misogynistic tweets from 2012 to 2016 were publicly revealed this week, have called for the Burlington city council candidate to drop out of the race. But Jafar’s defenders say his past indiscretions shouldn’t disqualify him.
Jafar on Monday apologized for the tweets, which promoted sexist stereotypes and suggestions of domestic violence. “I want to be really clear, everyone offended by those comments is right to be offended,” he said.
Jafar also confirmed to Seven Days that he did not intend to step aside. Neither the Vermont Progressive Party nor Rights & Democracy have withdrawn their support for the first-time candidate and recent Colby-Sawyer College graduate.
His opponents, incumbent Democrat Joan Shannon and Republican-turned-Independent Paco DeFrancis, told VTDigger they were troubled by the tweets. Some community members have echoed that criticism.
Valerie Carzello, who ran for a Chittenden County state Senate seat last year, says Jafar’s tweets were too extreme for him to hold office.
“If I was his constituent, I wouldn’t right now feel comfortable approaching him with women’s issues, for example, or sexual violence issues,” she said. “I would be too nervous.”
Jafar gained attention early in the race for both his background as a refugee and his progressive policy platform. His defenders say he should keep running.
“Whatever he decides to do, I personally will support him,” said Ward 7 councilor Ali Dieng. Dieng, who is also a member of Burlington’s New American community, said Jafar’s tweets reflect cultural biases that the candidate has overcome.
“People of Burlington, they know that people change,” Dieng said. “They will give people another chance.”
Rep. Selene Colburn, a Burlington Progressive, said she hasn’t decided whether she thinks Jafar should step aside.
“I think it’s an open question: When do we allow growth and change, and what does accountability look like for things that people have said and done that are reflective of real harms in the culture at large?”
Colburn noted that DeFrancis, who has a history of offensive social media comments, isn’t facing the same demands to step aside.
“I think what [Jafar] said is horrible,” she said. “I also think as a young black man in our culture, he’s being scrutinized in a different way.”
Both Jafar and Josh Wronski, the executive director of the Vermont Progressive Party, tentatively agreed to be interviewed for this piece and later declined.
In a text message, Jafar wrote, “I need more time directly responding to and learning from the people my words have affected.”
Wronski wrote, “This is a complicated issue that our local leadership is still in the middle of discussing.”
Rights & Democracy communications director Shay Totten, who defended Jafar earlier this week, did not respond to multiple interview requests.
Ed Adrian, a former Burlington city councilor, said he’s been surprised by the response from these groups.
“What seemed to happen in this instance is a doubling down. Or a tripling down,” Adrian said. “There does not seem to be any backing down even though the situation is clearly not a great situation to be in for this young man.”
Adrian suggested Jafar step down and spend time working with victims’ groups before running for office again.
Colburn said it was “heartbreaking” to see a strong candidate express sexist views. Members of her party are discussing how to proceed.
“Is redemption from those views possible? On what timeline?” she asked.
On this week’s podcast, Carzello, Dieng, Colburn and Adrian weigh in on the Jafar campaign and its backers. Plus, VTDigger’s Burlington reporter Aidan Quigley describes what’s at stake in the race.
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Mohamed Jafar [at Burlington Progressive Caucus]: First and foremost, thank you all for being here tonight. I’m really glad and happy that you’re all out. So I shall start.
Mohamed Jafar is a candidate for Burlington’s south district city council seat.
Jafar: I grew up here. My family migrated here when I was about 7 years old, and I am a product of the Burlington school system.
Jafar had gained attention early in the race for his background is a refugee and his progressive policy platform.
Jafar: I want to give back to the city that gave to me, and that is important for me. Because of the assistance that I’ve had all the help that I have gotten, I have been able to create and be the character I am today, and I’m thankful for that.
But this week, newly revealed misogynistic comments Jafar posted on Twitter from 2012 to 2016 have changed the conversation around that race. And they’ve brought home big-picture questions about how to hold public figures accountable for their pasts.
Aidan Quigley: There’s definitely a lot of competitive races in the city.
Aidan Quigley is VTDigger’s Burlington reporter.
Quigley: There’s a lot of energy from a group of young Progressives. That’s really been the main focus so far of the campaign, which was highlighted by Perri Freeman. She defeated a long-time Progressive incumbent Jane Knodell at the Progressive Caucus in January for the central district seat. So there’s a lot of active Progressive campaigns. Essentially, the Progressives feel like they have an opportunity to pick up some seats and really change the tenor of the council and, you know, grab some political power back from Mayor Miro Weinberger and his allies on the council.
Tell me about Mohamed Jafar’s campaign.
Quigley: So Mohamed’s running against Joan Shannon, who’s been a long time Democrat on the council. She used to be the council’s president, and she’s definitely one of the leading Democrats on the city council. It’s a three-way race — Paco DeFrancis, who used to be the chair of the Burlington Republican Party is running as an Independent, recently announced he was leaving the Republican Party. Mohamed Jafar’s campaign was definitely bringing a lot of energy to the base, you know, getting a lot of attention for his backstory as a refugee who moved to Burlington.
Jafar: My family migrated from Kenya, though originally from Somalia. My parents actually fled civil strife in Somalia and made it to Kenya where the United Nations refugee camp was able to assist and provide us an opportunity to come here to the United States and that’s why I’m here before you today.
Quigley: So he’s talked a lot about housing, income inequality, the opioid epidemic, a lot of the big issues facing the town that the Progressives have been talking about.
Jafar: There’s a lot of things that I saw growing up that still persist. A lot of issues that have really hurt families for a long time, and these issues should be being attended to. I feel that our legislators oftentimes move too slow on a lot of these things, and I wish these issues would be better attended to. And for that reason, I want to get involved.
Quigley: And kind of the increased integration of New American communities in the city of Burlington.
Jafar: Burlington has a wealth, a wealth, of culture. It has a wealth of an identity, and it’s time we bring that about. We have so many different communities and we oftentimes aren’t getting together in a cohesive and wholesome setting where we can bring everyone to the table and have everyone be a part of that discussion so that we can really solve these problems.
Quigley: You know, really pushing some of the bread and butter issues of the Progressives.
So what changed for him this week?
Quigley: Yeah, so we broke the story Monday afternoon that he had tweeted some sexist tweets when he was in high school and his early years of college, some that hinted at violence against women.
How did you find out about these comments?
Quigley: We got a tip that these were these were out there, and started to look into them. We took some steps to make sure they were legitimate and his, and then we gave him a call. I gave him a call on Monday afternoon. He was very apologetic about the tweets. He stressed that he has grown and changed since the time that he sent these, and that they were a part — they’re kind of a symptom of a misogynistic society. But at the same time he definitely took responsibility in our conversation for sending these tweets. He stressed that they were not indicative of his character at this point, and he said that anyone who was hurt and offended by the comments have the right to be, and that they were especially heinous.
Dieng: You know, I read the article. I was really disappointed and shocked. And then, kept on reading the article, and find out that actually, that Mohamed has changed.
One of Jafar’s defenders is Ali Dieng.
Dieng: He definitely has changed, shown so much growth in between, based on the same subject, about women.
Ali is a Burlington city councilor who’s also a member of the New American community. He says Jafar’s background is an important factor here.
Dieng: Mohamed came from a culture — a culture where women are not really well-respected within even the family boundaries. Mohamed, as a young boy, coming here in the United States, and he did not have anybody while growing up reminding him what is important, and why it’s important to help women. To bring them up for equality and for justice. He did not have that, but I’ve seen him change — by himself. And I think we need to harness that change in order for him to now do the work with all the New Americans who live here.
Quigley: Some people are saying, you know, we need to allow people the chance to grow and mature. And it’s clear that he has since then.
You talked to some other people about this idea that this doesn’t represent the way he is in person. Tell me about some of those conversations.
Quigley: I talked to a couple of Progressives Monday — Josh Wronski, who’s the executive director of the Progressive Party in Vermont, said that the tweets were disappointing and wrong, and it’s important to hold people accountable. But he also stressed that people should have the ability to learn and grow over time and that the tweets do not reflect who he is today. And then Freeman, Perri Freeman, the Progressive city council candidate in the central district, said that she feels that the tweets represent his views at a much younger age, and that she feels that he has evolved since then. But of course she stressed that the tweets were misogynistic, and jokes about violence against women are never OK.
I should note that both Mohamed Jafar and Josh Wronski tentatively agreed to be interviewed for this piece, and both changed their minds within a day of our initial conversations.
Ed Adrian: What it seemed to happen in this instance, was a doubling down or tripling down. I suspect that some of that’s organized, and I suspect that some of that is ad hoc.
This is Ed Adrian. Ed served on the Burlington city council from 2007 to 2012.
Adrian: There does not seem to be any backing down, even though clearly the situation is not a great situation to be in for this young man who by all accounts is a good guy, but that doesn’t necessarily make up for what’s occurred in the recent past.
Ed’s been a vocal critic of Jafar’s decision to stay in the race.
Adrian: Withdraw. Do some rehabilitation, regroup, and in a few years — and I don’t have an exact number — after that rehabilitation has been done, working with groups that advocate for change in this area, understanding things a little bit more, working maybe with people who have been even victimized by language like this. Then I think you can come back from a place of saying, “I made a mistake when I was in my teens. And that mistake was realized when I ran for public office in my early 20s, and now it’s been five or 10 years later. And here’s what I’ve done since.”
Valerie Carzello: I read the article. And I thought they’re not just dumb, sexist jokes — that they’re promoting violence against women, and quite openly. So they weren’t just demeaning, they were scary. I know a lot of survivors of violence and sexual assault, that — the words brought back a lot of pain.
Another critic this week was Valerie Carzello, who ran for a Chittenden County state Senate seat last year. She said it would be hard for her to trust Jafar as a public official after reading his comments.
Carzello: You’re in a leadership position. You’re in a place where people have to trust you to make decisions that affect their family. If I was his constituent, I wouldn’t right now feel comfortable approaching him with women’s issues, for example, or sexual violence issues or hate issues, I would be too nervous. So I think you have to be somebody that somebody would feel comfortable approaching with problems in their own life.
She also said he could work to resolve that trust issue. But it would take more time.
Carzello: He’s 22, and at 32, he could have 10 years of community service with women and women survivors and talking about and understanding a new place and a new perspective.
Quigley: I talked to Joan Shannon before we published, and she said that she has a daughter in high school, and she could never imagine her friends tweeting things like Jafar did when he was in high school just a few years ago. She thought that the tweets were disqualifying for a city council candidate in that they were so misogynistic and violent.
It’s interesting that this conversation is happening here now, against the backdrop of what’s happening in Virginia, with the governor and lieutenant governor there both facing accusations around past indiscretions. It seems like there’s this ongoing conversation about how tolerant people should be of previous behavior by officeholders or candidates for public office.
Quigley: Yeah, there’s a discussion to be had about repentance, I guess, in the public square, and the ability to allow people to grow and to move on from past views. How do you kind of square the need to hold people responsible and accountable for their beliefs and previous actions with, you know, an ability to allow people to grow?
Colburn: I have been thinking a lot about that and I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know.
At the Statehouse this week, we spoke to Selene Colburn. She represents Burlington in the House. She said Jafar’s tweets were reprehensible. But she hasn’t decided whether she thinks he should step aside.
Colburn: So in my work in politics at this point, a lot of my work is focused on criminal justice reform, on restorative justice, on making sure that when people face repercussions for their actions and have to pay debts to society, that those debts and repercussions are reasonable and don’t preclude someone from growth and change and becoming a full and contributing member of society. So it’s, I think it’s an open question, like when do we allow growth and change? And what does accountability look like, particularly at this moment in time for things that people have said and done that are reflective of real harms in the culture at large?
What do you mean by that? Like, what is it about this moment in time that is significant?
Colburn: So I think we’re seeing a more widespread recognition of how pervasive racism is, how pervasive sexism is. And we’re seeing people held accountable in new ways: the Me Too movement, you know, looking back at how people have participated in dominant cultural modes that are really racist is part of that. And so we’re kind of in this moment where people are being held accountable for things in their past. And I think in some ways that’s a really good and powerful thing. And I think in some ways, it’s becoming a stand-in for actually addressing the systemic harms in our culture. So like, how do we change institutional racism? How do we change institutional sexism, so young men aren’t absorbing these and normalizing these beliefs and spitting them back out into the world, right? And that’s a question sometimes that it seems like people are less interested in asking than like, how are we going to punish this person who did this thing?
It does seem though, like some of the people who comment on this see people who are in elected office or seeking elected office — having them step aside is almost a first step to addressing some of those questions. Because if you have people in office who have expressed sort of regressive views, that you’re not going to make progress on those questions, if those people are holding positions of power.
I’m curious, what do you feel about this question of: should we have zero tolerance for certain past indiscretions? Or is there a certain amount of — you talked about rehabilitation. How do we know how rehabilitated someone has to be to hold a leadership position?
Colburn: Right, and what’s the line, and like, are we applying those standards equitably? I think what he said is horrible. I also think as a young black man in our culture, he’s being scrutinized in a different way, and he also has really different expectations of him about how has to prove himself. Does a young white man who’s running in the same race as Mohamed who’s also made, I think, incredibly abhorrent statements on Twitter get the same degree of scrutiny or the same public outcry to step down?
Aidan, you’ve reported on this, that Jafar’s opponent Paco DeFrancis has also gotten in trouble for posting offensive comments on Twitter.
Quigley: Yeah, so DeFrancis has been a very outspoken Republican on social media, especially in relating to local issues and running up to the campaign last year. He’s taking a lot of far right positions and positions that even have crossed lines and he says that he regrets, for sure.
For example, he posted dash cam footage of Senator Debbie Ingraham’s DUI arrest, and he wrote “good riddance” to heroin users who don’t have the quote unquote self-control to get treatment. He says that he apologizes for these, and that he’s grown since the midterm elections, but that’s an even more recent — you know, that was in November, and it’s February. DeFrancis has definitely also been a controversial figure on Twitter to say the least.
Colburn: So I don’t have a magic line, right? Of like well if someone has done x, y and z, they should be allowed to run for office or be in a position of leadership. I think that’s the question I’m asking, just like you. I didn’t endorse Mohamed, so I don’t have any personal support to withdraw from him.
You’re a member of the same party though, the Progressives, right?
Colburn: That’s true, that’s very true. And he went through a nominating process with the Progressive Party. And there’s no mechanism to like formally withdraw the nomination so then I think there’s this gray area of well, what’s the right response?
I think part of what has generated some controversy specifically regarding Jafar is that he is a Progressive, and that the Progressive Party so focused on social justice, and that the specific topics of those posts were, you know, that they were misogynistic. They directly contradict with the sort of message of equality and social justice that the Progressive Party has as part of its platform.
Colburn: Yeah, I think it does. That’s why it’s been really heartbreaking to a lot of us to see a candidate that I think a lot of people were really excited about express these really harmful views. And then have to grapple with these questions, like, so is redemption from those views possible? On what timeline, right? You know, I can say there are really thoughtful conversations happening among progressives about exactly that. I haven’t talked to anybody who’s like, “Oh, this is no problem. This is not an issue. Why is anyone making a big deal about this?” I have seen those sentiments expressed — not by anyone who identifies as a Progressive. People are really concerned and really being thoughtful about how to weigh all the factors.
Dieng: Whatever he decides to do, I personally would support him. But I would want him to keep on running this race. He made a mistake, I think he learned from this mistake, and now he is the one who needs to lead that work with what came to light recently with those old tweets of Mohamed, I think he is the one now who needs to lead this work, not only for women, not only for also the city, but for the state. I see that way forward from where I’m sitting. I think it’s definitely his time, and people of Burlington, they know that people change, and they would give people another chance.
Adrian: There are some obvious parallels to what’s going on with the Virginia governor’s race. I mean, you swap gender for race. The campaign, in this instance, basically parotted exactly what went on in Virginia in this instance, which was “he wants to have a discussion now moving forward.” You know, the Virginia governor said, “I want to be the champion of these racial initiatives.” Well, OK, but the time to have done that was not after you get caught with something. The time to do that was, realize I’ve made a mistake before I guess you’re quote unquote caught, and make amends for that. I don’t think that there’s a specific formula for making amends. I think you could probably come up with a number of reasonable ways that you could be involved in rehabilitation and outreach.
Carzello: Very honestly, I think Jafar should step out of the race, and I’m not saying that lightly or to hurt him as a human, because I do believe he wants to learn, change and grow from this experience. And I do believe his apology was sincere. But having said all that, I think a few years in the community, working with women and survivors of violence, would be good steps in regaining trust with women. Women, and especially his constituents, shouldn’t have to do emotional labor while men learn about rape culture in general. While men learn about violence and how to treat women, women die from violence inflicted on them. So I just think now’s not the time for him to run.
Aidan, I’m kind of curious to just get a sense of what the paths forward might be. What do you think are the options here for what happens next?
Quigley: It sounds to me like, at least on Monday, people were standing by Jafar, and he was going to move forward with the support of the Progressive Party. I have no indication that that’s changed since then. I’m sure that groups around the city are talking about this issue and talking about what the best next step would be for him. It seems like he will stay in the race. You know, I’m not sure how much this will affect his electoral chances.
But Town Meeting day is less than a month away. It should be interesting to see how the rest of the campaign plays out.
Thanks Aidan.
Quigley: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
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