Iowa City council candidate for re-election issues apology

IOWA CITY - Two weeks after she made a comment about race she regretted, Iowa City Council member and candidate for re-election Michelle Payne issued an apology Thursday.

Her remark came during a Sept. 30 political event called the Social and Economic Justice Forum, which was hosted by the Center for Worker Justice, the Coalition for Racial Justice and The Johnson County Affordable Homes Coalition. During the forum, candidates were asked their thoughts on the causes of racial disparities in Iowa City and what besides training could be done to ensure that city staff, including police, not discriminate or act with racial bias.

In Payne's response, she referred to black people as 'colored” then quickly chose a different phrase.

'Maybe if you were white and had some black friends you'd get more insight into how colored people, I shouldn't say it that way; how black people think about our community leaders,” she said at the September forum.

Thursday, Payne distributed a written apology to the Iowa City Clerk's Office and local news organizations.

'I recognized as quickly as I spoke that the words ‘coloured people' was an offensive term and immediately attempted to rephrase the comment,” she wrote, using the British variant of color. 'The purpose of this letter is to offer my sincere apology for the use of this term. In making a point about racial disparity I misspoke in a way that was contrary to the very point I was trying to make regarding open and honest conversations about the very things that divide us, but should not,” she said in the letter. 'Again, I apologize and ask that you not let my ill chosen words define me.”

Payne, who could not be reached Thursday for comment, did not explain in her letter the timing of her apology.

Payne is one of four at-large candidates running Nov. 3 for two open seats on the council.

A link to the forum can be found at: http://view.earthchannel.com/PlayerController.aspx?PGD=iowacity&eID=1312