Ontario NDP candidate drops out over: 'I want to be a Black woman' comment

With one week to go before Ontarians cast their ballots, a white Ontario NDP candidate has dropped out of the race over comments she made at a conference last year in which she expresses a secret desire "to be a Black woman."

Amanda Zavitz, a sociology professor at Western University running in the riding of Elgin-Middlesex-London, announced in a Facebook post that she was resigning her candidacy. 

"After further reflection and discussions with community members, I have decided to resign as the Ontario NDP candidate for the upcoming election," she wrote. "It has become clear that my past comments are distracting from the critical task of defeating Doug Ford and electing an Ontario NDP government.

Her decision to drop out comes a day after she apologized for the comments, also in a Facebook post. 

The controversy began when Progressive Conservatives highlighted a YouTube video of Zavitz speaking at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women conference in New York City last March. CBC News captured a copy of the video, which has now been removed.

Zavitz, speaking at a podium at the New York conference, recalls an exercise she and participants did at a Toronto conference 10 years prior called "post secret." Zavitz said participants were asked to write down their deep-rooted secrets. Some were picked and read to the audience. One included an admission of an affair, another spoke about stealing money from a spouse's bank account.  

In relaying this to the audience at the New York event, Zavitz revealed her secret. 

"My secret is that I want to be a Black woman," she said. "If you don't know me, you might question this. You might wonder if I'm lying, or if I've really thought this through. If you do know me, you will know 100 per cent for certain, it is true."

In the video of her speech, Zavtiz goes on to tell the New York audience she's often criticized as being a "Karen" because she's a white women who advocates for equality. The name "Karen" has fallen into use as a generic and pejorative term to refer to any privileged woman, often white, who is perceived as demanding and entitled. 

"The easy answer is that I want to lead the fifth wave of feminism and that when you look like I do and people call you a Karen, it's difficult to be taken seriously as a leader of the fifth wave of feminism," Zavitz tells the New York audience. 

"The more complicated answer is that I want to know all that I know, I want to be a sociologist and a women's studies professor. I want to be an expert in inequality with lived experiences of poverty and living in addiction and alcoholism. I want to be able to share my ideas without the barrier of looking the way that I do."

On Thursday, Zavitz sent an email in response to questions about her comments from CBC News.

She explained herself in this way: "The point I intended to make was that greater awareness of the lived experience of Black people and communities would improve understanding of what it's like to face systemic racism. I apologize for any harm caused by my remarks." 

The video was first surfaced by the Progressive Conservative Party campaign, which said NDP leader Marit Stiles "owes Ontarians an explanation as yet another problematic NDP candidate has been exposed." In a statement, the party said Zavitz's comments "trivialized the life experience of Black Ontarians."