Everett city councilor criticized for sharing racist meme

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“It breaks my heart to hear from a sitting councilor talking about a derogatory word about Black people,” Guerline Alcy Jabouin, who is Black and ran unsuccessfully for the council in November, said at a council meeting Monday night. “It hurts more to know that the city’s not doing anything about this.”

She called for DiPierro to step down, eliciting sustained applause from dozens of residents who attended the meeting in the Everett High School library.

DiPierro did not respond to the calls for his resignation at the meeting or to inquiries from the Globe afterward. But he apologized publicly in a letter to the editor published by the Everett Advocate last week, calling his actions a “misjudgment.”

“I recognize the mistake I have made, take full accountability, and apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended by it,” DiPierro wrote.

“The casual use of the word in culture and society can desensitize its meaning and intention and I recognize what I did was wrong,” he added. His decision to share the meme would be a “learning experience,” he said.

Everett resident Janice Lark, who is Black, said during the meeting that a city councilor should know better and recalled being called the n-word as a child.

“Councilor, you are not 10,” she said. “You know the impact of using the n-word.”

DiPierro, 27, is a son of Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s cousin.

DeMaria also wrote an op-ed for the Advocate last week, saying he “stands against discriminatory behavior in all of its forms.” “Anyone who uses this word or distributes content that is racially insensitive or promotes any other form of discrimination must be reproached for such behavior,” DeMaria wrote.

Two additional messages from DiPierro obtained by the Globe also include references to the n-word, including a “Peanuts” cartoon captioned with a racial slur to a group chat of people that included DeMaria spokeswoman Deanna Deveney. She said the message was part of a larger group text thread and she did not respond to it directly.

“I do not condone personally nor professionally the use of any racist language,” Deveney added in a statement. “I regret being involved in a group text message and not expressing my disdain for the use of that word between two other individuals. This has reminded me of the importance of speaking out when something isn’t right.”

Cathy Draine, Everett’s new director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, said in an interview Tuesday that council may have its own means for censuring members, but that it’s her job to establish appropriate policies and procedures across city government to avert discrimination.

“My response to the residents is that they have every right to be upset and expect more of city officials and each other as we continue to learn how to be better as a community as a whole,” Draine said. “I think that what we are experiencing are the growing pains that come from asking the hard questions and also holding each other accountable, even when it comes to light this way.”

DiPierro, who left Monday’s council meeting early, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. In his apology letter, he asked that residents to “not let one mistake define who I am as a person.”

“The relationships that I have built and maintained throughout my life demonstrate who I truly am as a person,” he wrote.

Everett, a racially diverse, minority-white city, had long been governed by mostly white male leaders. The city’s first Black female city councilor, Gerly Adrien, took office in 2019 and was often at odds with other councilors, some of whom pressured her to resign rather than attend meetings by Zoom during the pandemic. Adrien said she faced relentless scrutiny as a Black woman in Everett politics and criticism from the mayor for her demeanor during meetings; DeMaria maintained that Adrien was being rude and unprofessional.

In January, Everett’s superintendent of schools Priya Tahiliani, filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleging that the mayor has discriminated and retaliated against her because she is a woman of color who has hired others like herself to work in the district’s administration. Tahiliani also pointed to the mayor’s critiques of her expressions and demeanor during meetings.

Adrien is no longer on the council, having run unsuccessfully for mayor in November, and the council has no Black members. The current board consists of eight white councilors, one Latina, and two Asian Americans.

Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @StephanieEbbert.

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