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Denver school board candidate Jeremy Harris is distancing himself from a nearly nine-year-old Facebook post in which he compared former First Lady Michelle Obama to an ape.
Harris said in a recent interview that his comment was “inappropriate” and “unacceptable.” He said it was “a joking remark about a specific person’s features, not about race,” and that it was “tied loosely” to the idea that all humans are descended from primates.
“It was a very immature statement,” said Harris, who is Black. “I’ve grown a lot since then. The comment doesn’t reflect who I am and what I stand for.”
The ape comparison is a racist trope and has been used against Michelle Obama before. Harris’ Facebook post resurfaced in this year’s school board campaign and led to an exchange — the details of which are in dispute — between Harris and a local education advocate.
In 2016, Harris posted to his personal Facebook page a news article about a Denver doctor named Michelle Herren who had called Michelle Obama a “monkey face” in a Facebook post of her own. Herren resigned from Denver Health Medical Center after her post went public. Harris posted the news article and commented about Obama, “She dose (sic) resemble an ape.”
Harris said the social media post isn’t as relevant to his campaign for school board as his ideas for addressing the issues facing Denver Public Schools today.
“The voters I talked to at the doors care more about third-grade reading scores, not Facebook posts from 2016,” he said, referring to voters he’s spoken to when knocking on doors. “This is a school board race, not a purity contest. I’d rather talk about the real reasons I’m running rather than bring politics or political attacks into this race.”
Harris is running to represent northeast Denver’s District 4. He faces three challengers for the seat: Monica Hunter, Timiya Jackson, and incumbent Michelle Quattlebaum.
In all, four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs Nov. 4. The election comes at a key time for DPS, which is facing declining enrollment, threats from the Trump administration, and pressure to raise student achievement.
Harris said the Facebook post has resurfaced as part of a smear campaign because his platform “is gaining traction, and some people see that as a threat.”
He said his platform includes ideas such as holding school year-round in communities where students are behind and retaining students in third grade if they’re not reading on grade level.
Harris alleged that Quattlebaum’s supporters are behind the alleged smear campaign. But Quattlebaum said that’s not true. She said she has operated with integrity as a board member for the past four years and is running a positive reelection campaign.
“If I put energy into anyone else’s campaign, that’s energy I’m not putting into my campaign,” Quattlebaum said.
Harris said he apologized for the Facebook post this past summer in a private conversation with advocate MiDian Shofner, a DPS graduate whose children also attended Denver schools. Shofner runs a nonprofit organization called the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership and often weighs in on DPS issues.
But Shofner, who said she spoke with Harris after someone shared the post with her, said that Harris did not apologize to her.
“When he responded to me, he said he still felt the same way and he had a right to say what he wants to say,” Shofner told Chalkbeat. “He was very unapologetic.”
Harris said that’s not true.
“I acknowledged that it was wrong,” Harris said. “I disagree with her account of the conversation.”
Shofner said in an interview that neither she nor her organization have formally endorsed any Denver school board candidates.
In an email Wednesday to Chalkbeat, Harris apologized for the Facebook post.
“I also want to apologize to anyone who reads your article and becomes offended by my comment from 2016, that was never my intent, and I understand how words can be interpreted differently over time,” Harris wrote. “Black women are the foundation of my life and family.”
Harris is a mortician who owns Harris Funeral Directors in Aurora. His son attends a Denver elementary school and Harris serves on the school’s PTA.
Other parts of his past have come under scrutiny. Harris pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft in 2014 in Tennessee, according to documents obtained by Chalkbeat from Shelby County Criminal Court. In 2012, Harris was working at a funeral home in Memphis when he used the company credit card machine to put two refunds onto his personal debit card: one for $8,000 and another for $10,000, the documents show.
Harris was sentenced to probation and ordered to repay the $18,000, court records show. The records show he had completed all of the requirements of his probation by 2020. Harris told Chalkbeat that his record does not make him unfit for office but rather makes him “uniquely fit” because he has faced adversity and understands accountability.
Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
