The Black Houston attorney who was condemned for his resurfaced misogynistic tweets disrespecting Black women has resigned.
via: Click 2 Houston
Waymond Wesley II, a TikTok star chef who worked in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, has resigned after a laundry list of his own “racist” and “colorist” tweets surfaced, showing him trolling and targeting Black women online. Outrage stretched from the Houston area to nationwide platforms, causing the chef to go viral in ways much different than the “oxtail pasta” recipes he boasted about.
“I know that this has been a painful time for many. The situation has remained complicated offline, but I want to offer the much-needed apology and context that I have wanted to share since the day my past tweets garnered attention,” Wesley said in his resignation letter posted online Tuesday.
In tweets from 2015 and 2016, Wesley, an African American man writing under a now-deleted account, @WaymoTheGod, posted a barrage of negative comments about dark skin and fuller-figured body types. He also compared Black women to trash.
Twitter users called the tweets colorist, anti-Black and misogynistic.
According to the State Bar of Texas, Wesley has been licensed to practice law since Jan. 2021 and joined the Harris County D.A.’s office in March of that year.
Although the controversial posts were made before he became a prosecutor, people questioned if he would be able to treat any Black woman with any type of fairness in a court of law. Many pointed out that, if Wesley was truly a changed man, he would have removed such negative and harsh statements against the women of his own race.
Candice Matthews, with the Rainbow Push Coalition, Quanell X, chairman of the New Black Panther Nation) and members from the Brazoria County NAACP, Houston Rising, and other civil rights organizations, held a news conference calling on Wesley’s boss, District Attorney Kim Ogg, to remove him from his position.
Ogg, however, stood by Wesley’s side, releasing a statement saying her office felt his statements were a thing of the past.
In response, Matthews had a strong message for Ogg.
“In 2024, we will find you at the polls,” she said.
She then led the crowd in a chant: “Hey, hey, ho, ho, this sexist prosecutor got to go!”
?/? At the time of hiring, the DAO was unaware of a series of disparaging & offensive comments Wesley had posted on social media years earlier. When the office became aware of the posts, it was determined he could no longer effectively prosecute cases and he was reassigned.
— Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg (@HarrisCountyDAO) January 24, 2023
?/? In his resignation letter, Wesley noted that “it has grown clear that my presence is becoming a distraction,” and he and the office mutually agreed that it was in the best interests of his career and the DAO that he resign.
— Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg (@HarrisCountyDAO) January 24, 2023
