Silke Jasso
At a forum during the beginning of April, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor spoke alongside of candidates vying for her office. The event would probably have gone unnoticed had Taylor not let out an unorthodox viewpoint. When asked what she believes to be the “deepest systemic causes of generational poverty in San Antonio,” Taylor began with what seemed to be a dodging answer; responding, “We could be here all night talking about that.”
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Instead of playing politician and offering a broad answer that didn’t hurt her politically, Mayor Taylor decided to give a very specific response: “To me, it’s broken people, people not being in a relationship with their Creator, and therefore not being in a good relationship with their families and their communities and not being productive members of society.
Taylor quickly backed off that answer, saying that she sees “education as the great equalizer.” Unfortunately, the damage was done. The San Antonio Current reported that 15 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and many of those living in such conditions are quite devout.
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The paper also noted that Taylor is “on thin ice for using her religious beliefs to discriminate against the city’s LGBT community.” In a statement to the paper, Taylor claimed that the video had been “intentionally edited to mislead the viewers.” A video of the hour-and-a-half long forum has been viewed over 18,000 times.
