Councilman draws ire for advocating racial quotas

Kithes gets criticism from fellow council members on proposal for board to review city’s policies

WOON6OCKET – The vote by the City Council this week to form an advisory board to review programs and policies for evidence of race bias and other forms of discrimination passed unanimously, but the session was anything but an exercise in political harmony.

It came after nearly an hour’s worth of often heated discussion in which members traded some of the most prickly and unflattering rhetoric voiced during a meeting of the council in some time.

Much of the hostility spun off Councilman Alexander Kithes’ relay of a last-minute request for changes to the board that would have removed much of the council’s discretion to choose who may serve on it. The request, which Kithes had received after the meeting began via text message, came from the Woonsocket Alliance to Champion Hope, and would have required that the board include two African-Americans, two Asians, two Hispanics, two Native Americans, two women and two homosexual or transgender people.

The sponsor of a series of Black Lives Matters protests in the city, WATCH had also sent all members of the council an email a few minutes before the meeting began, asking that the proposal to form the board be tabled altogether. The email questioned whether the “white” members of the council could do a satisfactory job of assembling the racial review panel.

“While we do not believe that it is impossible for people outside of an identity group to recognize injustices faced by that group, we cannot ignore the fact that members of City