Social media backlash: Harris County assistant district attorney and online chef under fire for tweets targeting Black women

Houston, Texas (KTRK) – The Harris County District Attorney is standing next to the Assistant District Attorney whose deleted tweets disparaging Black women recently resurfaced.

Waymond Wesley held the jobs in 2015 and 2016 before joining the DA’s office in 2021.

On social media, Wesley is known as Chef’s way. He has hundreds of thousands of followers. Outrage over his tweets about black women online led to him losing partnerships with culinary brands, but legal experts said the consequences shouldn’t end there.

Wesley’s spaghetti recipe has more than 33,000 likes on Instagram, but many of his followers aren’t savoring his past Twitter posts disparaging black women. This account has been deleted. the Pinned post Under the account he’s using now, he said: “To whomever I hurt with my previous resurfacing tweets, I am so sorry. That was a moment in my life where I was sick in more ways than one. Cooking saved me. You watched a flawed man heal. I will continue to heal and learn.” Thanks for being along for the ride.”

Retired US District Judge Vanessa Gilmore said that given his position as attorney general, an apology is not enough.

“It’s not that he doesn’t deserve a pardon. He doesn’t deserve to be in a place that, one, shows that he may not be fair in terms of his decision-making process, and two, where he demeans people and undermines people’s trust in the justice system,” Gilmore said. “.

Prosecutor General Kim Og disagreed. I issued the following statement in support of Wesley:

“Waymond Wesley joined our office in March 2021. We most recently learned of comments he made on social media posts nearly seven years ago. These posts were inappropriate, offensive, and do not reflect my values ​​or those of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. . explained Wesley said these posts came during a time when he was struggling with serious personal problems, including alcohol addiction.Prior to joining our office, Mr. Wesley went through therapy and worked with the Texas State Bar to resolve his issues.His recovery is ongoing.I am a believer in second chances, and he has acted Mr. Wesley has been professionally engaged since joining our staff. I am sure that will continue.”

The reaction online was less forgiving. Tastemade said in a tweet: “We are shocked and disappointed to see this past behavior from one of our Partner Creators; behavior that we do not condone and certainly not in line with our values. It has been removed from our platform, and we have no plans for future collaborations.”

“We have completely severed ties with this person because we strive to only work with partners who share our core values,” added Anova Culinary.

Gilmour, who has spent most of her career combating bias in the justice system, said Wesley’s consequences must extend to the courtroom, where she questioned how fair he was in making decisions about demographics he disrespected.

“It shows you what their implicit bias may be when it comes to other important decisions, like indictments, that prosecutors have a lot of discretion over,” she said. “Whether they’re going to charge someone, especially with regard to things like what kind of sentence they might recommend.”

On Friday, civil rights groups plan to hold a demonstration in front of the DA’s office, calling for Wesley’s dismissal. He has not yet responded to Eyewitness News’ requests for an interview.

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