Mahaska County Supervisor Doubles Down on using Racial Slur
And a brave woman pushes back...
Sometimes I feel like it is the early 1960’s again in Iowa, when I was a little boy, when I would regularly hear racial slurs. It always puzzled me why some people I knew would say bad things about people of different races when I knew that they had never met anyone of that race.
It made no sense to me, probably because the lessons my mom taught my little sisters and me about Iowa civil rights pioneer Edna Griffin. That story is here.
She also taught us about language, about how words could hurt or heal. Mom also taught us how easy it was to learn and apologize when we did or said something wrong. Dad did too. Most times, it was easy and made everyone feel better.
Didn’t you learn this? I think you did.
The Oskaloosa Herald reported that Mahaska County Supervisor Steve Wanders used the word “n*****-rigged in reference to makeshift repair or construction several times at the March 4 Board of Supervisors meeting.
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Mahaska County resident Sarah McGriff lit Wanders up as a racist on TikTok (above), which is where I found out about it. She also criticized the other members of the board and the county auditor for not saying something when the inappropriate comments were made. McGriff had posted that she was going to go to the next meeting of the Board of Supervisors, which was Monday, and I was curious about what would happen during the public comments section, so I went also.
I thought Wanders had an easy way out—just apologize, say he learned something, and that everyone could move on. Healing could begin in a divided community.
But no. Instead of apologizing for using the slur, he doubled down. In his statement below, he didn’t apologize; he merely thanked those who supported him:
McGriff wasn’t having it. Below is the video, followed by the text of her comments she emailed me.
Her statement:
I am here to address Supervisor Steve Wanders’ use of a racial slur at the March 4th public meeting, and the failure of Supervisors Chuck Webb and Mark Groenendyk, and County Auditor Madison Garden to respond to it during the meeting.
The phrase Supervisor Wanders used was not a neutral rural expression that someone later deemed offensive. It implies that the work done by Black people is improvised, inferior, and substandard. The slur is not incidental to the phrase — it is the point of it. It would be easy to say no harm was done and leave it at that. But it takes integrity to wrestle with the weight of our words, accept responsibility, and commit to doing better.
Supervisor Wanders said this phrase had been habit for years. Something being habitual does not excuse it — it demands sincere consideration of why the habit exists and what steps can be taken to form new ones. The absence of harmful intent does not remove culpability. It suggests the habit was developed in an environment where the impact of such language was never considered, because those impacted were never in the room. There is no shortage of alternatives: “jury-rigged,” “makeshift,” “cobbled together,” “improvised.”
The idea that Black work is inferior work is not only an insult — it is a lie history has disproven at every turn. Lewis Latimer made the light bulb practical. Garrett Morgan invented the traffic signal. Katherine Johnson’s mathematics put Americans in orbit. Granville Woods made railroads safe. Otis Boykin’s resistor is in the pacemaker keeping hearts beating right now. This is an incomplete list. It could fill volumes.
But this is not only about Supervisor Wanders. Supervisors Webb and Groenendyk were in that room. Supervisor Webb has acknowledged he heard the slur and chose not to draw attention to it — choosing the comfort of the room over the dignity of the residents that room is meant to serve. County Auditor Garden was taking the official minutes and has said the slur did not register for her. I do not doubt that, but if a word that harmful can be spoken at an official meeting and not register for the person keeping the public record, that tells us something important about the culture of these proceedings.
As a county resident, I am calling on this Board to issue a formal public apology that acknowledges not just that the word was used, but what the phrase means and why its use is harmful.
I am asking you to acknowledge that the failure of others in that room to respond immediately was also wrong. I am asking you to establish a clear, written standard of conduct for official proceedings. And I ask that this Board understand that one saying “I did not mean harm” and “no harm was done” are not the same thing.
Mahaska County is my home, and I believe we can do better. I offer this not to shame anyone, but because understanding matters. Words carry history. Phrases carry meaning. It is the responsibility of each one of us to understand the weight of these words and phrases.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Sarah McGriff
The woman below defends Wanders. She says the word “n******-rigged isn’t a racist slur, maybe 80% of Iowans use the word, and that Wanders doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.
Remarkably, she also said, “If you look at that word, and see race, you are the racist.”
She also criticized the “failing” Oskaloosa Herald for reporting on Wanders’ use of the slur, rather than condemning Wanders for using the word. For her, Wanders is the victim.
She also criticizes McGriff and says that she “doesn’t have God in her heart.”
There’s lots more to unpack, but I will stop here.
The man below also defended Wanders. He also says that it’s really sad that it seems like it’s the same group that is trying to indoctrinate our kids on sexuality, who are the same people accusing Wanders of racism. He finds it sad for the community that this nationwide agenda is getting close to home.
One thing that I kept thinking about during the meeting was that all of the white people who were pontificating that the word “n*****-riging wasn’t a racial slur were doing so in front of a Black reporter.
That reporter is Solae Pope-White with KYOU in Ottumwa. Here is her story of the meeting.
Jeff Wilford with the Oskaloosa Herald and Solae Pope-White with KYOU were interviewing Wanders after the meeting, and I joined in. Below is some audio of part of the conversation. It’s worth listening to, but I’m not going to provide a transcript of all of it because of length issues.
One of the interesting things Wanders said several times is that “someone higher up and a lot smarter” than him told him not to apologize.
Who might that be? Reporter Wilford dug in, but Wanders wouldn’t answer.
Wanders said, “Everything I meant right here, I meant. I’ll say it again, and I’ll say it again, and I’ll say it again because it’s who I am. And the day I have to change who I am to do this job, it ain’t worth it.”
As the conversation was coming to a close, Pope-White said, “I do have a question. You, as a leader, you say you do for the people here in Mahaska County, whether it’s one resident, five residents, someone has an issue with the language that you use, how can you not apologize or understand that?
Wanders’ response to a Black woman, after a meeting where the elected officials in the room and their supporters concluded that the word, n*****-rigged wasn’t a racist slur, was to say:
I’m done, I’ve told you three times…
And he walked away, dismissing her, the only Black person in the room.
And how did Pope-White respond?
With a polite, “Thank you.”
All three supervisors are Republicans, and I presume MAGA. As I’ve written before, why does every Black person have to be Jackie Robinson, while so many white people are MAGA racist assholes?
Use of the word “n*****-rigged is explicit racism. It has a long history of being used to mock and dehumanize Black people. It associates them with things poorly made and suggests incompetence and disposability. Used by people in elected roles suggests that there may be systemic racism as well, if it’s impacting their decisions. It’s also unprofessional.
It would have been so easy for any elected official in the room who had been silent when Wanders first used the slur, or at the meeting on Monday, to say it was inappropriate, but they didn’t.
Perhaps they were caught off guard, embarrassed, or feared retribution the first time he said the word. But their silence makes them complicit. They had a chance to condemn the remarks at two meetings, but didn’t.
Wanders thanked his supporters. They, too, are complicit.
If you watched the videos, consider the tone of Wanders’ and his supporters’ remarks.
They are smug and patronizing. Arrogant, proud, and defiant in their bigotry.
The citizens of Mahaska County can be proud, however, that one of their own, Sarah McGriff, powerfully rebuked these elected officials.
They can also be proud that two reporters, Jeff Wilford with the Oskaloosa Herald and Solae Pope-White with KYOU, reported on the issue and asked the questions that needed to be asked.
Pope-White was filming B-roll of the courthouse from outside, and Wanders stopped me at the door as I was leaving. We had a pleasant conversation about this, that, and the other. I didn’t return to the subject of his remarks, and probably should have.
Wanders seemed like a nice guy. Pleasant to talk with.
Regardless, like a fish swimming in water that doesn’t know it’s in water, Wanders apparently doesn’t recognize that he’s swimming in an ocean of generations of racism that has been normalized.
Or maybe I’m being too generous. Maybe he knows he’s racist and likes it.
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What cowards and racists. As a Black Iowan, I’ve been in a similar situation at a past job where a racist thing was said in a staff meeting and nobody acknowledged it until I spoke up. Then, everyone became apologetic but at that moment my relationship with all of them was severed — because then I knew for sure what they would do, say and think when I wasn’t in the room. For those claiming otherwise, any and all derivatives of the N-word are unfuckingacceptable. Great job to everyone reporting on this and exposing them for what they are. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
That is a highly inappropriate phrase and for an elected official to use it and not realize how backwards and ignorant it makes him look is appalling. Kudos to the resident who called him on it.