‘Homelessness Advocate’ Came to Maine DEI Commission Meeting Slurring Speech, Said N-Word, Claimed to be Part Black and Victim of Racial Profiling

After showing up to a meeting last Friday slurring her speech heavily, a “homelessness advocacy” commissioner on Maine’s Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Tribal Populations (PCRITP), a taxpayer-funded agency tasked with dismantling “systemic racism” in the state, proceeded to say the n-word, claimed to be part black, and said she was racially profiled by police.

Amanda Comeau, who serves as the Permanent Commission’s “representative from a housing or homelessness advocacy organization,” entered several minutes late into PCRITP’s May 17 Community Engagement Committee meeting, and subsequently derailed the hour-long meeting into several slurred and rambling digressions.

LISTEN:

Comeau described one incident in which she claimed Westbrook Police attempted to “entrap” a woman by pulling her over and asking her questions.

She also claimed the same woman received death threats and was called the n-word by workers at a rehab clinic — Comeau used the slur to quote what the workers allegedly said.

“Westbrook [Police] was trained on how to respond to a woman or any woman that has been in trafficking, or has lived a life of trafficking.

Um, I am now hearing that Westbrook PD went into a home, or no, they didn’t go into a home, they pulled somebody over from her house, and wanted to know if there was drugs there. So they’re trying to entrap her, which are totally against the law. You know what I mean?

So, now I’m looking at like bringing, I have to look at a lot of different areas. But, um, we have Pine Tree Legal, and then we have Maine Equal Justice. But then again, she’s also of color. So – and her child is of color.

And one of the major things where, before she got out of rehab, we asked that there was a – they threatened to kill her one year old, the child, that’s a n***er is what they said. And I said, What are you talking? Like? Where are they even being able to do it? It took them a month in Westbrook to serve these people.”

Amanda Comeau

Later in the meeting, Comeau began to describe her ethnic and racial background and told a story in which she claimed to have been racially profiled by a police officer who pulled her and a client over.

Comeau began to use the outdated term “mullato” to describe herself, which is a term generally considered offensive for a person of mixed racial background, but appeared to catch herself.

“Um, just one more for like, food for thought. So I am French Indian mulatt – well, I’m part Black, and Irish. So I have a pretty big, you know, background – a lot of people suggest some Black or Latino. I am partially Black.

But, um, I was pulled over with a client that was of color. And the guy said to me, Oh, I’m just pulling, I’m – now remind you, I was already pulled over, trying to make sure that I had everything connected. And I didn’t want to drive with my hands doing anything. So I pulled over made sure everything was connected. And I got pulled over, pulled over.

And I said that’s racial profiling, what you’re doing right now. And he, so he got mad at me, and he asked me for my license, everything. But you know what I mean, it was just awareness on his behalf that I was trying to bring, like, you are not seeing the fact that, you know, you’re hurting other clients by doing this. And other people.”

Amanda Comeau

“Commissioner” Comeau works with Portland-based homeless advocacy organization Preble Street’s “Homeless Voices for Justice” (HVJ) and is the director of anti-trafficking organization Survivors Speak USA.

Preble Street, which runs several homeless shelters in Portland, is a major recipient of government grants, in 2022 collecting over $12.5 million in taxpayer dollars.

Preble Street boasts that HVJ, their “social change” organization, has a “focus on race equity,” and that they “hold a 30-minute decolonization discussion at the beginning of each weekly meeting.”

HVJ also runs a “You Don’t Need a Home to Vote” voter registration campaign, claiming to have registered over 2,500 homeless and low-income people.

As recently as January of this year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) granted $2.4 million to Preble Street, part of more than $20 million in federal grants awarded to various Maine homeless shelters.

According to the Permanent Commission’s bylaws, Comeau’s seat is appointed by the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives — Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland), who is also the co-chair of the Commission.

The Maine Wire has previously reported on how the Permanent Commission granted Speaker Talbot Ross’ sister $12,000 for a Black History Month event without disclosing any familial conflict of interest — a report that led them to completely overhaul their conflict of interest policy.

[RELATED: State DEI Commission’s Finance Committee Prohibits Public Comment After Question About Conflict of Interest…]

It is also not the anti-racist Commission’s first experience with its leadership engaging in blatant racism.

Last July, PCRITP Executive Director Ariel Ricci banned white people from talking at a public meeting in Lewiston.

Ricci claimed that she did not ban white people from talking at the meeting and subsequently declined to comment when confronted with the audio showing that she did.

The Maine Wire contacted Ricci on Tuesday regarding the May 17 meeting to ask whether or not she was comfortable with commissioners using racial slurs in her meetings, whether there is a policy against commissioners showing up to meetings under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and whether Comeau was appointed by House Speaker Talbot Ross.

Ricci has not responded.

Incidentally, the Permanent Commission has launched a project geared toward renaming “offensive” place names in the state, including places names that contain racial slurs — however, they have not addressed racial slurs uttered in their own meetings.

[RELATED: Taxpayer-Funded “Place Justice Project” Bemoans “Problematic” Place Names in Maine…]

In fiscal year 2024 (FY24), the Permanent Commission had a total budget of nearly $2.3 million — including $1 million in taxpayer-funded pandemic relief funds provided by Gov. Janet Mills’ “Jobs Plan.”

The Commission appears to have generated a grand total of zero full-time jobs outside of its own staff and part-time or temporary contractors.

One of Commission’s plans in their proposed FY25 budget is to spend $20,000 on “influencers” for “Restorative Justice education,” and to work on ” developing a measurement tool related to an individual’s orientation toward justice from punitive to transformative.”