Sade Perkins, a former Houston mayoral appointee and food insecurity board member, is under fire for referring to a Texan all-girls camp as “white-only” just hours after the facility was hit by a deadly flood, killing young campers and leaving others missing.
According to the New York Post, Perkins shared her controversial take on the tragedy in a TikTok video.
Perkins accused the camp of racism amid the rising death toll
In a since-deleted TikTok video shared on Sunday, Perkins, who former Mayor Sylvester Turner appointed to Houston’s Food Insecurity Board in 2023, spoke about the Camp Mystic flood crisis and described the institution as a “white-only girls Christian camp,” Click 2 Houston reported.
“I know I’m going to get canceled for this, but Camp Mystic is a white-only girls’ Christian camp. They don’t even have a token Asian. They don’t have a token Black person. It’s an all-white, white-only conservative Christian camp,” she said in the video.
“If you ain’t white, you ain’t right, you ain’t gettin’ in, you ain’t goin’. Period,” Perkins continued, adding, “If this were a group of Hispanic girls out there, this would not be getting this type of coverage that they’re getting, no one would give a f**k, and all these white people, the parents of these little girls, would be saying things like ‘they need to be deported, they shouldn’t have been here in the first place’ and yada yada yada.”
The Houston Mayor’s Office confirms Perkins will be ‘permanently’ removed from the board
Perkins’ clip quickly went viral, with many condemning her comments on the tragedy. After journalist Carmine Sabia called on the Houston Mayor’s Office to respond on X, formerly Twitter, it denounced the former mayoral appointee’s claims.
“The comments shared on social media are deeply inappropriate and have no place in a decent society, especially as families grieve the confirmed deaths and the ongoing search for the missing,” the Houston Mayor’s Office wrote. “The individual who made these statements is not a City of Houston employee. She was appointed to the City’s Food Insecurity Board by former Mayor Sylvester Turner in 2023, and her term expired in January 2025. Mayor John Whitmire has no plans to reappoint her, and the City is taking immediate steps to remove her permanently from the board.”
Camp Mystic death toll rises to 48 adults and 27 children
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha confirmed on Monday morning that 75 bodies have been recovered from the flood, which hit the facility on July 4. CNN reported that the death toll includes 48 adults and 27 children.
“Of this 48 adults and 27 children, 15 adults and nine children are pending identification,” Leitha said during a news conference, adding, “At present there are 10 campers from Camp Mystic unaccounted for and one counselor.”
As of Monday, the death toll from the Texas floods is 89.
