Ypsilanti mayor resigns after week of backlash over racist comment

Ypsilanti City Council

Ypsilanti Mayor Beth Bashert resigned on June 23 after colleagues and community members called her to step down for saying she would be "crucified" if she did not vote for a Black resident to be appointed to a commission.Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com

YPSILANTI, MI -- Ypsilanti Mayor Beth Bashert has resigned after days of community calls for her to step down due to racist comments made at a City Council meeting.

Bashert, elected to the position in 2018, announced her resignation on her personal Facebook page Tuesday morning, June 23. She said she resigned to help the healing and allow people of color to experience equity in the city.

“I am deeply sorry to have my service end on this note and in this way,” Bashert wrote on Facebook. “Sadly, as a result of my actions, there is healing to do to ensure that all residents, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color, enjoy full equity in Ypsilanti. That is what I want for our city. I had hoped to participate in that healing process, going forward.”

Bashert did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

City Clerk Andrew Hellenga confirmed that the city received and accepted Bashert’s email resignation Tuesday morning.

During the Tuesday, June 16 City Council meeting, Bashert said she would be “crucified” if she voted against appointing “any Black person on any commission.” She had been criticized previously for not appointing or reappointing people of color to city commissions -- a power only the city’s mayor has.

Ypsilanti mayor said she ‘would be crucified’ for not supporting a black commissioner. Her colleagues on council called her racist.

Several of Bashert’s colleagues quickly condemned the comments at the meeting and asked for an apology to Black leaders in city government, but found she was defensive. She later apologized and acknowledged her comments as racist.

But the community continued to call on her to step down, saying her comments were unacceptable and some arguing they were part of a larger pattern. Other council members asked her to resign at protests on Saturday and Monday in Ypsilanti.

Council members call on Ypsilanti mayor to resign at Black Lives Matter protest

“I am glad that she recognized that the role was not about her but about the community,” Councilwoman Nicole Brown, who called for Bashert’s resignation on Saturday, said. “She did the right thing to start healing and moving our community forward. I’m thankful that she made the decision to resign.”

Councilman Anthony Morgan said he thought he resignation was a sign of people’s increased and stronger calls toward addressing systemic racism.

“This is a start -- thinking about language, microaggressions and actions,” Morgan said Tuesday. “However policy, positions and personnel have much long standing as a form of structural racism. Those are the things that need to be deconstructed.”

Ypsilanti elected officials, activists call on mayor to resign after comments about appointing Black commissioners

Bashert’s term was supposed to expire in November 2022. She previously served as a City Council member representing Ward 2.

Mayor Pro Tem Lois Richardson will serve in Bashert’s place until the November general election, Hellenga said. Interested mayoral candidates can submit petitions to run as independents for the November 2020 general election by July 16.

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