Austin Capital Metro board member draws fire for racial comments on hiring
A longtime NAACP leader in Austin on Friday condemned an assertion by the Capital Metro’s board sole black member, who said African-Americans should not be hired to lead the transit agency, given Austin’s racial makeup and history.
Nelson Linder, president of the Austin NAACP for the past 18 years, called on the agency’s board to repudiate what Beverly Silas, vice president of the Capital Metro board, said during an August work session.
“I cannot even understand her comment, that’s how off base it is,” Linder told the American-Statesman after Silas’ comments were first reported this week by the Austin Monitor. What Silas has suggested “is illegal, first of all. And it has no basis in reality. We’ve had a lot of successful (African-American) leaders here,” Linder said.
In an Aug. 9 board discussion of the criteria for hiring a new Capital Metro CEO and president, Silas recalled a conversation she had in 2010 with Robert Goode, an Austin assistant city manager who was serving with her on a search oversight committee the last time Capital Metro was on the hunt for a new chief. That search resulted in the hiring of its current leader, Linda Watson, who is retiring in December.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/capital-metro-board-member-draws-fire-for-racial-comments-hiring/YWTML80460jOCXHTRIRJwM/