LYNN — Additional candidates vying for positons as elected officials in the city say they have experienced and witnessed racial profiling while campaining, following former mayoral candidate Keith Lee announcing his resignation from the race due to racial profiling.
City Council candidates Coco Alinsug, Marven Hyppolite, Natasha Megie-Maddrey and Hong Net shared their own experiences, which have ranged from constituents saying a candidate’s race would cost them their vote to having the police called on them while they were out campaigning, presumably because of their race.
Candidate for Ward 3 Councilor Alinsug said he experienced racial profiling for the first time in Lynn when he decided in early 2021 that he would run for a position as an elected official.
Alinsug was born in the Philippines but has lived in Lynn for more than 20 years. He said he still experiences people telling him he cannot run for office because he’s not “from here.”
Alinsug recalled an experience when a woman called and told him, “You immigrants are sucking the system,” “Immigrants can’t run for anything in my city,” during a 20-minute exchange where she also referred to him as a “lazy immigrant.”
Hearing these comments, Alinsug said he was shocked and confused and didn’t know what to do, but said he always tries to ignore “hateful” and “rude” comments as such.
“I couldn’t believe everything she was saying,” Alinsug said. “I’m a community person and I always love to interact with people, and I’ve never had people confront me like this.”
When this woman eventually stopped yelling at him, Alinsug said he was shaking, but composed himself enough to ask if she wanted to talk about Ward 3. When she did not have any questions or concerns about the ward Alinsug is running to represent, he said he politely told her he was going to hang up.
He said he took a couple of minutes after the phone call to meditate and reflect upon all the positivity surrounding his campaign, volunteers and community.
“I couldn’t believe there was an individual like her filled with so much hate,” Alinsug said. “Immigrants come to this country to escape something … and you move here to better your life and to reach for the American dream and in order to reach that, you have to go through a lot of obstacles.”
Alinsug said his life in America has taken a lot of hard work; he said there were times where he wanted to give up, but he has achieved his dream and has created a “beautiful” life in Lynn. He said he is running for city councilor to help others do the same.
Megie-Maddrey, who is running for Ward 4 councilor, said she has experienced racial profiling during four of her campaigns. Megie-Maddrey ran for School Committee twice and Ward 4 councilor twice and said each campaign included people giving her confused looks and asking if she’s actually running for a seat as an elected official.
Megie-Maddrey cited a particular experience where she was knocking on doors in Ward 1 during one of her campaigns for School Committee. She went to a house where a woman answered the door and asked Megie-Maddrey, “What’re you doing in my neighborhood?” The woman told Megie-Maddrey that she didn’t belong there, which Megie-Maddrey assumed was because she is a Black woman.
A couple of minutes after Megie-Maddrey left the house, the police showed up and said that the woman called the police on her.
“It was a citywide campaign, so I should be able to go to all of Lynn without facing something like this,” Megie-Maddrey said. “Race shouldn’t be a defining factor. People should vote on the values and the person, not the color of their skin.”
Despite the racial profiling, and this campaign being her fourth, Megie-Maddrey said she continues to pursue municipal politics because she wants to change perceptions of women — and people — of color, and she wants to see more representation and diversity in City Hall.
Incumbent Councilor-At-Large Net, who is running for reelection, said he also had the police called on him while campaigning and frequently had his lawn signs stolen or burned.
“People spat on me, put their thumbs down while driving by, told me to put my signs down, yelled at me and told me to go back home out from their car windows while I was holding signs,” Net said. “All the negative views and remarks toward me, all I did was smile at them and said thank you to them; I didn’t complain to anyone or say anything back to them. I only discussed it among my family members and my campaign team, asking everyone to be patient and keep positive.”
Candidate for Councilor-at-Large Hyppolite said that, although the vast majority of his interactions at people’s doors have been positive, he and some of his volunteers have experienced racism while door knocking.
“We’ve had folks say they won’t vote for me because of my Haitian heritage and some of my Hispanic volunteers have had insults thrown at them,” Hyppolite said. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it hurts.”
Hyppolite also said he is concerned about the percentage of people of color working in City Hall, adding that the lack of representation in the city government as well as the unstable housing in the city disproportionately affects people of color.
“Those one-off situations of racism are easy compared to a system that is designed to exclude certain groups of people,” Hyppolite said. “I think Keith did a brave thing talking about his experiences. It’s not easy, but it’s necessary to have these conversations so we can improve our city and make it one that works for all of us.”
