Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker caused a stir online Wednesday after posting a graphic poem to social media.
In a post on Facebook, Walker described Charlottesville as a city that “rapes you, comforts you in its cum stained sheets and tells you to keep its secrets.”
Walker also shared a screenshot of the post on Twitter, which, just like Facebook, led to both praise and confusion.
The Facebook post was flagged and temporarily taken down by the platform not long after. Walker responded by sharing a censored version of the post alongside the original takedown notice from Facebook.
“You can’t go live or advertise for 30 days,” the notice says. “This is because you previously posted something that didn’t follow our Community Standards. This post goes against our standards on adult sexual exploitation, so no one else can see it.”
Despite the action’s from Facebook, Walker doubled down and released an even longer version of her poem, which accuses the city of being “anchored in white supremacy.”
Charlottesville, for many, has become synonymous with racial hatred after a white supremacist involved with the “Unite the Right” rally drove his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters in 2017, killing one woman in the process.
Despite initially removing the post, Facebook later reinstated the original poem, according to Walker.
“It looks like FB took me out of FB jail,” Walker wrote. “I guess my post didn’t violate their policies.”
Facebook has thus far not publicly commented on the matter. The term “Charlottesville” ultimately became a top trend on Twitter Wednesday afternoon. And without proper context, it freaked out a number of people, especially those in conservative media, who were appalled by a mayor using a metaphor and saying “cum.”