Los Angeles Unified School District Board candidate Kahllid Al-Alim apologized this week for pre-campaign social media posts that endorsed assigning antisemitic literature to students, and for liking “graphic content.”
The controversy could scramble the most crowded school board primary race in the district. Al-Alim, a longtime community organizer, janitor, and LAUSD parent, is running against six other candidates to represent Board District 1, which includes Mid-City, Crenshaw, and part of south L.A.
LAUSD’s teachers union endorsed Al-Alim to replace longtime leader George McKenna, who is retiring at the end of the year.
United Teachers Los Angeles wrote in a statement to LAist that Al-Alim’s “social media activities are offensive and unacceptable. They are inconsistent with what we have seen of Kahllid as a decades-long organizer for education justice,” and that the union would be considering “next steps.”
(Update, Feb. 23: The union announced it would suspend support for Al-Alim's campaign.)
There are dozens of screenshots circulating on social media of posts that were allegedly “liked” by Al-Alim.
In his statement Tuesday, Al-Alim addressed one specific post.
In October 2022, Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, made multiple antisemitic statements and spread conspiracy theories on social media and in interviews, including with Fox News.
An X user wrote on October 17, “You don’t understand the Kanye interview because you never read this” and included a picture of the second volume of “The Secret Relationship Between Jews and Blacks.” The series author Louis Farrakhan has made antisemitic comments and promoted conspiracy theories for decades. Farrakhan leads the Nation of Islam, a religious Black nationalist group.
The book’s subtitle: “How Jews gained control of the Black American economy.” It plays into antisemitic tropes about money and power and its scholarship has been debunked.
An X account with Al-Alim’s name and photo responds that the book should be “mandatory reading” for LAUSD students, particularly in schools with extra resources and those trying to improve outcomes for Black students.
“I was wrong,” Al-Alim wrote in his statement. “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.”
The statement continues: “I have spent my life fighting against antisemitism, anti-arab (sic) hate, Islamophobia, and all forms of oppression. I have spent my life fighting for the equality of all people.”
LAist requested an interview with Al-Alim early Tuesday evening. Campaign manager Erica Huerta said the candidate was unavailable and attending a fundraiser and offered to answer questions.
LAist asked for examples of how Al-Alim had “learned about the issues.”
“He has a lot of networks of educators and community members that he's been working with over the past 20 years,” Huerta said. “He's dedicated to consulting with his networks before taking action that can hurt anyone.”
Huerta initially said Al-Alim’s campaign was already aware of the post’s existence.
“Before the campaign even officially started, that was one of the tweets that we recognized,” Huerta said in an interview on Tuesday, Feb. 20. ”We tried to delete it.”
Huerta contacted LAist again on Sunday, Feb. 26 after Al-Alim posted a new, longer apology on Instagram.
“I misspoke,” Huerta wrote in an email. "I clarified with our team that we did not know about the social media activity.”
There are more than two dozen posts alleged to have been “liked” by Al-Alim circulating on social media.
Somebody who has these values should not be making decisions about students—period.
Al-Alim has yet to refute or deny the authenticity of many of those posts. His Tuesday statement also acknowledged liking “graphic content” and reads, “It was inappropriate. I will never do that again.”
Huerta, who self-identified as one of several Jewish people working on the campaign, said she’d known Al-Alim for almost 20 years though local activist circles.
“His goal was never to run for office,” Huerta said. “Any missteps in the past, I think, should be taken, you know, with that understanding that Kahllid is truly a community member and a grassroots activist… We'll definitely learn from his mistakes ongoing.”
An informal teachers union caucus of Jewish educators surfaced the Farrakhan post and others on Friday, Feb. 16.
Educators Caucus for Israel posts under the handle JewTLA, a play on UTLA, the acronym for the LAUSD’s teachers union.
The ad hoc committee describes itself as Zionists.
Several of the posts that the Al-Alim account “liked” are critical of Israel’s violence against Palestinians. War broke out on Oct. 7 when militant group Hamas attacked Israel. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent attacks and the majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced.
“We certainly support the rights of Jews to be in Israel, where there's a long established relationship with the territory spanning millennia,” said Chair Amy Leserman in an interview with LAist. (Not all Jewish Americans consider Israel an essential part of their Jewish identity and this divide has contributed to hostility since the start of the Israel-Hamas war).
The group formed in 2021 as UTLA considered a resolution in support of ending aid to Israel. In May 2021, NPR and other media reported more than 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis died in a rash of violence. The resolution was later shelved, but the caucus continued to grow, including to chapters in other parts of California and out-of-state.
“We organize so that we can protect the Jewish students and workers and families within LAUSD's jurisdiction,” Leserman said. For example, the group organizes virtual meetings about antisemitism in schools.
Leserman said the group became aware of Al-Alim’s social media posts last week, and on Feb. 14 asked UTLA leadership to reconsider its endorsement.
“Somebody who has these values should not be making decisions about students—period,” Leserman said.
UTLA has not responded to LAist’s question about when it learned of Al-Alim’s posts.
“He should withdraw from the race,” Leserman said. “He has much learning to do about educational systems… educational systems need to honor and protect all of the learners and all of the families.”
The primary election is in two weeks.
Historically, teachers union endorsements are strong predictors of school board race outcomes.
“Average voters tend to use the union endorsement as a cue for favoring the candidate,” said Michael Hartney, a political scientist and Hoover fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Hartney evaluated California, New York and Florida school board elections between 1995 and 2020 and found union-backed candidates won 7 out of 10 seats.
UTLA announced its endorsement for 3 of the 4 LAUSD board seats on the ballot in January.
“Kahllid has been a partner in our struggles against privatization, reconstitutions, and co-locations, and he has helped shape our work on Community Schools and the Black Student Achievement Plan,” the union’s endorsement reads.
Outside groups affiliated with teachers unions have spent more than $650,000 in support of Al-Alim’s campaign. The only other candidate to benefit from independent expenditures, Didi Watts, has brought in less than half that amount. Watts is a longtime educator and chief of staff for current LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin.
Tuesday, Feb. 20
LAist first saw screenshots of tweets allegedly liked by Al-Alim on Tuesday morning.
Several posts appeared to come from the “Likes” of a private X account with the name KAHLLID A. AL-ALIM, the handle @KahllidA and a bio that read “South Central Los Angeles resident born and raised in the Crenshaw District. Community Activist for Education and Economic Development.” Later in the day, the account was no longer available.
LAist requested an interview with Al-Alim through campaign manager Erica Huerta who declined on the candidate’s behalf, citing a Tuesday evening fundraiser; she answered questions by phone. LAist contacted Educators Caucus for Israel (JewTLA) and interviewed chair Amy Leserman.
LAist also asked two of Al-Alim’s major endorsers, UTLA and the L.A. County Federation of Labor for comment. UTLA sent a statement disavowing Al-Alim’s social media activity.
On Tuesday night, LAist sent the screenshots shared on X and a dropbox folder of screenshots provided to LAist.
Wednesday, Feb. 21
Al-Alim emailed early Wednesday morning, pointing LAist to the initial statement on his campaign website and writing "I will have another statement up shortly after we have all the information that's out pertaining to this issue." He did not provide a copy of that statement to LAist.
Thursday, Feb. 22
On Thursday morning, Al-Alim’s campaign Facebook page posted a statement alleging that “attacks” on his campaign were coordinated by people trying to privatize schools and dismantle recent LAUSD priorities including adding more resources to school campuses and supporting Black students. LAist has asked the candidate to explain these claims.
Friday, Feb. 23
UTLA and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor announced they would no longer campaign on Al-Alim's behalf. UTLA said in a statement that its members are discussing rescinding the endorsement with a final vote on Monday, March 4, the day before the primary election.
