Local attorney and former SF Supervisor Angela Alioto won't be facing disciplinary action from the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) following an April 24 incident in which she reportedly used the N-word six times in order to illustrate a point about its ugliness.
Alioto was speaking during a DCCC meeting at which several African American members of SEIU 1021 union were addressing the committee, and she was apparently trying to explain how prevalent the use of the N-word was in local government workplaces, and how it was grounds for lawsuits about hostile work environments. Her use of the word, she says, rather than its more politically correct shorthand, was an attempt to express to those assembled that this is a word that is still, horrifyingly, thrown around in workplaces derogatorily when it shouldn't be.
As Alioto tells the Chronicle, "The intensity of the word to the person is what matters in the workplace. This DCCC just got a little lesson on what really is going on in the real world, as opposed to the political world."
Alioto apologized two weeks ago for her use of the word, saying she just got "too passionate" in speaking about what she hears from her clients all the time.
DCCC chair David Campos says that the committee won't be initiating disciplinary proceedings because exact rules for handling a situation like this don't exist. He tells the Chronicle, "Instead of having a fight about what to do with this one individual incident, we want to have a conversation about what our expectations are for members so there’s a clear understanding of how we should engage with each other and members of the public who come to testify." The group was scheduled to have that discussion at its Wednesday night meeting.
Previously: Angela Alioto Apologizes After N-Word Use At Democratic Committee Meeting