The Affirmative Action Committee (AAC), a subcommittee of the West Virginia Democratic Party (WVDP), was sold to many minorities recruited as a way for marginalized communities to have greater representation in the WVDP’s Executive Committee (EC) and to increase minority participation in the Democratic Party in a meaningful way. 

Within weeks, Black and Indigenous members found that they were lured to participate on the AAC under false pretenses. Several incidents occurred that unequivocally revealed that Selina Vickers, secretary for the AAC, and Mary Thorp, the now-former Female Chair of both the Senior Caucus and the AAC, used their positions of leadership, influence, and the minority members of the AAC to further personal agendas. Vickers expressed relatively quickly that her primary objective included targeting the WVDP’s chairwoman, Belinda Biafore, as well as removing members of the WVDP’s EC in an effort to replace them with personal friends, members of Vickers’s progressive group entitled The Reformers, and people Vickers deemed as “trustworthy”.

As their agenda became ever more apparent, many members began to protest Vickers and Thorp’s actions, and others have resigned. Those actions include ongoing and insidious manipulation of the AAC, its minority members, and the creation of an affirmative action plan and bylaws for the expressed purpose of silencing dissenting voices.

There are several emails from Mary Ann Claytor, Charlie Mullins, Mari Sturm, Seth Sturm, other members of the AAC imploring Vickers to reposition her focus from chairwoman Biafore and pivot her energy towards working on creating an affirmative action plan as we all believed that was what we were called to do on the AAC.

Vickers and Thorp submitted an affirmative action plan to the WVDP’s EC written by majority-white members of the AAC. There was little to no input from the minority constituents of the ACC. The plan that was submitted is a false demonstration of what should have been a community-written affirmative action plan and contains plagiarized content submitted without the knowledge or consent of the AAC’s minority members.

Both Vickers and Thorp proceeded to institute many rules that resulted in limiting the diversity of minority members and the inclusion of minority voices in both the creation of the bylaws and the affirmative action plan. Both Vickers and Thorp have deprived BIPOC members of the opportunity to fully participate and instead, have abused their leadership positions by:

1. Keeping BIPOC members of the AAC from subcommittees such as planning, bylaws, etc.
2. Using BIPOC and minority members to effectuate an anti-democratic agenda
3. Writing scripts for white members used during AAC meetings to gain and whip majority votes on actions meant to
silence dissenting BIPOC members and their concerns
4. Harassing & filing grievances on behalf of BIPOC members without expressed authorization
5. Lying to AAC members about the purpose, scope, and mission of the AAC
6. Signing contracts with 3rd party vendors without consent from members of the AAC or the WVDP
8. Holding a listening tour with WV voters in the name of the AAC without authorization
9. Inviting non-WVians to participate in AAC meetings while not allowing AAC members to participate or vote
10. Actively blocking votes of minority AAC members while allowing white AAC members to participate in voting during AAC meetings
11. Enforcing rules, policies, and procedures that go beyond the scope and authority of the secretary
12. Exclusively disenfranchising BIPOC members of the AAC for the express purpose of limiting their participation
13. Targeting BIPOC members to exclude diversity

The WVDP should take the egregiousness of Vickers and Thorp’s actions under serious consideration commensurate with the urgency and swift decisiveness it deserves.