A prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office is taking heat on social media after racist tweets he previously released to the media resurfaced this week.
Assistant District Attorney Waymond Wesley II’s past racist and misogynistic letters have drawn attention in large part because of his significant online presence: When he’s not prosecuting criminal cases, Wesley works as the famous TikToker Chef Way, with over 250,000 followers and 2.7 million likes on his cooking videos.
Wesley’s racist tweets first went viral online after he posted a TikTok of himself making oxtail pasta last week. Commenters on the video are quick to remind the prosecutor that they haven’t forgotten his previous comments.
Twitter user @tayshusmama provided a brief summary of some of Wesley’s tweets from the now-deleted @WaymoTheGod account on January 8. In one, he tweeted an image of a dark-skinned black woman and wrote “she’s too black.” In another, he lined up an image of a black woman next to one of a landfill and wrote, “I see no difference.”
In July 2015, Wesley also opined on the death of Sandra Bland on Twitter. Bland was found dead in a Waller County jail cell after a run-in with State Trooper Brian Encinia during a routine traffic stop. Video of the encounter shows Encinia pointing a gun at Bland to get her out of her car before taking her into the Waller County Jail. Although authorities ruled her death a suicide, many still question her cause of death years later. Her name is remembered among thousands of other black people who have died at the hands of the police and highlights racial injustices in the criminal justice system.
Just weeks after her death, Wesley took to Twitter to share his thoughts on Bland’s death. “If black lives mattered to Sandra Bland, she would not have taken her own life. And I’m serious,” he tweeted on July 29, 2015, according to screenshots posted by @tayshusmama.
As controversy over the prosecutor’s tweets grew online, Wesley attempted to apologize. “I am deeply sorry for those I have hurt with my past tweets that have resurfaced. It was a time in my life when I was sick in more ways than one. Cooking saved me. You have watched a flawed person heal. will continue to heal and learn. Thanks for being along for the ride,” he wrote in a tweet and TikTok posted in the days after the now-infamous oxtail pasta video.
The Internet may be coming for him, but it looks like Chef Way’s boss, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, still has his back. In a statement, Ogg said, “We recently learned of comments he made in social media posts almost seven years ago. These posts were inappropriate and offensive and do not reflect my values or those of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Mr Wesley explained that these posts came during a period when he was struggling with serious personal problems, including alcohol addiction.