LAUSD candidate faces accusations of antisemitism
Kahllid Al-Alim, a candidate to represent the 1st District for Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education, has apologized for social media activity that sparked controvery recently and led the local teachers union to suspend campaign activities in that race.
Al-Alim, one of seven candidates, had apparently made and liked posts on X, formerly Twitter, that have been decried as antisemitic; he also followed accounts that were sexually explicit in nature, including those that promoted women on the adult site OnlyFans. The posts were on his personal X account, which has now been deleted, rather than his campaign website. But a series of screen grabs, which a consultant for one of Al-Alim's opponents provided this news organization, seemingly confirm the sexually explicit accounts he followed, and showed posts from other accounts and shared on his page that were antisemitic.
When contacted by phone this week, Al-Alim did not deny the posts but instead referred to a statement on his campaign website.
In that statement, Al-Alim apologized for the posts, including one promoting the second volume of “The Secret Relationship Between Jews and Blacks,” by Louis Farrakhan, the controversial head of the Nation of Islam.
“I want to apologize for my posts about the Farrakhan book,” Al-Alim said in the statement. “I was wrong. I have connected with educators and community members and have since learned about the issues. I fully rescind that post. It has no place in our schools.”
He also apologized for the sexually explicit content.
“It was inappropriate,” he said. “I will never do that again.”
But that apology hasn't stopped the backlash against the candidate, who had nabbed the endorsement of the powerful union that represents more than 35,000 teachers within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Kahllid Al-Alim's social media activities were offensive, antisemitic and unacceptable,” the UTLA said in a Friday morning statement posted to its website. “They are inconsistent with what we have seen of Kahllid as a decadeslong organizer for edu
cation justice. Elected leaders should exemplify professionalism and set a positive example for those they represent.”
UTLA's board of directors, according to that statement, voted to suspend campaign activities in the 1st District during an emergency meeting this week. That move is pending a final decision, according to the statement, and a final vote on whether to rescind the union's endorsement is set for March 4, just one day before the statewide primary election.
It's unclear why it will take UTLA, which did not return requests for comment, until March 4 to decide whether to revoke the endorsement.
It's also unclear what effect the delay in potentially revoking the endorsement could have on the election results, especially because the vast majority of voters will likely cast ballots via mail. During the 2020 presidential primary, for example, 86% of voters did so via mail. Vote centers also will open around Los Angeles County today.
UTLA had donated about $860,000 to a committee supporting Al-Alim, as well as 3rd District incumbent Scott Schmerelson and 5th District candidate Karla Griego, as of Jan. 30, according to campaign finance data. And Al-Alim was still listed on UTLA's endorsements page as of Friday.
On that page, UTLA calls Al-Alim a “fighter for racial and economic justice.” AlAlim has served on the African American Education Task Force and advocated for the creation of the Black Student Achievement Plan, according to his website.
“Kahllid shares our values and has demonstrated his commitment and ability to lead,” that page says, “and he will move this work forward on the school board.”
Former UTLA officer Gregg Solkovits, who is a full-time substitute teacher with LAUSD and the president of Democrats for Israel Los Angeles, said in an interview that he was confident the union will investigate the controversy and “will do the right thing.”
“Most members were stunned,” Solkovits said.
Al-Alim is one of seven candidates running to succeed retiring board member George McKenna in the 1st District, which runs from around Beverly Hills southward, wraps around Inglewood and ends at Gardena.
Al-Alim's campaign website says he wants to stop school “privatization, reconstitution and co-locations” in the district, which has wrestled with the advent of charter schools sharing LAUSD campuses. His other priorities include investing in “green” technology, addressing the housing crisis — specifically for homeless youths — and supporting immigrant students and communities.
But at least one of his opponents, career educator and administrator DeWayne Davis, has called on Al-Alim to suspend his campaign.
“The behavior of Mr. AlAlim and his ideology is a cancer growing in our community,” Davis wrote on his Facebook page this week. “The hate of antisemitism is aimed at our Jewish neighbors and friends; however, the poison of antisemitic ideology ravages us all.”
Al-Alim, when reached by phone Wednesday, said he would provide another update on his campaign website Thursday. But as of Friday, that new statement hadn't arrived.
“Right now,” he said, “we're just going to hold fast until we get all the information that's out there swirling. I want to address the whole issue, but don't have all the information.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, meanwhile, also condemned Al-Alim for his social media activity, particularly those seemingly supporting Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and accusing Israel of genocide in the current war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam published a book rife with antisemitic tropes alleging that Jews played a central role in slavery,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action director for SWC, a Jewish and humanitarian organization in Los Angeles, said in a statement. “It was so pernicious that the late Dr. Harold Brackman, a longtime researcher for the Simon Wiesenthal Center and expert on Black history wrote a book debunking the very book this candidate for the Los Angeles School Board commended.”
Among the screenshots provided to this news organization are those that show Al-Alim's personal X page having a 2022 post by Farrakhan commemorating the anniversary of the Million Man March, which Farrakhan organized and that drew hundreds of thousands to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1995 to call for African American unity.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil and human rights organization, considers Farrakhan an antisemite.
Another post apparently shared on Al-Alim's X account, according to the screenshots, is from a lawyer and political activist named Shola Mos-Shogbamimu that accuses Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians.
Israel has repeatedly denied those accusations, saying its goal is to eradicate Hamas, a terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip and launched a brutal attack on civilians in Southern Israel on Oct 7. During that attack, Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
“The Jewish community is already reeling from a tsunami of antisemitism,” Cooper said in his satement. “While we acknowledge that Mr. Al-Alim has apologized for his posts, we commend the UTLA's leadership in sending the right signal to halt support for a candidate who is seeking election to be one of the key gatekeepers for Los Angeles public school students. At a time of surging antisemitism, it is crucial that people need to be accountable for their actions.”
Al-Alim, for his part, said in his statement that he has fought against oppression his whole life.
“I have spent my life fighting against antisemitism, anti-Arab hate, Islamophobia and all forms of oppression,” he said. “I have spent my life fighting for the equality of all people. There is a very long history of Jewish and Black people backing each other and working in solidarity for justice. I want to continue that important work.”