Tamaya Dennard to Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley: You don't have to 'whitesplain' to me

Sharon Coolidge | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption Listen as Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard tells Cranley not to 'whitesplain' to her Cincinnati City Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard during a council meeting told Mayor John Cranley not to "whitesplain."

It seemed like a relatively easy set of votes for Cincinnati's City Council: approving members for an obscure city auditing committee.

But before the votes were taken on the five people, Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard questioned the make-up of the Internal Audit Committee – in particular why four of the five people were white men.

When Mayor John Cranley attempted to explain there's not really a long list of people wanting the volunteer job, Dennard told him she didn't need him to "whitesplain" the issue to her.

Cranley didn't respond to comment, allowing the conversation to continue.

Whitesplaining is "the act of a white person explaining topics to people of color, often in an obliviously condescending manner, and especially regarding race- or injustice-related issues," according to dictionary.com.

Council ultimately approved the five members: four white men and one white woman. Dennard voted in favor of the appointments.

Still, Dennard and others have urged the city to bring diversity to its boards, and council agendas now include the race and gender of any board appointees.

Dennard took office in January 2018, one of nine Cincinnati City Council members. She has made a name for herself calling out what she sees as white privilege when it comes to financing development projects and changes coming to the city's West End, where FC Cincinnati is building a Major League Soccer stadium.

She championed the passage of a ban on asking salary history as a measure to reduce pay disparities between women and men with similar jobs. She also proposed studying whether city policies were racist, though the idea never came to a vote.

Dennard made national headlines in April in the aftermath of a fire that nearly destroyed Paris' renowned Notre Dame Cathedral. She said the global reaction to it was a "prime example of privilege."

She pointed at the time to the recent string of arsons at predominantly black churches in Louisiana as an example. "I'm sure they held significance as well," she wrote in a tweet. "They were barely acknowledged."

Neither Dennard nor Cranley could immediately be reached for comment.