‘Whites-Only Enclave’: Former Houston Official Faces Backlash Over Camp Mystic Comments

A former Houston official faced harsh criticism over her comments about victims who died in a Texas flood over Independence Day weekend.

Sade Perkins, a former Houston official appointed by the late Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, posted a video on social media criticizing the response to campers’ deaths at Camp Mystic. At least 27 campers and counselors from the camp died in the floods that devastated Texas’ Hill Country. The deaths at Camp Mystic are among at least 120 who have died in the Texas floods.

Describing Camp Mystic as a “whites-only enclave,” Perkins claimed in the video the response to the deaths at the camp would have been different if the campers were not white.

“I know I’m probably going to get canceled for this, but Camp Mystic is a whites-only, girls’ Christian camp,” she said. “They don’t even have a token Asian, they don’t have a token black person. It is an all-white, white-only, conservative Christian camp. If you ain’t white, you ain’t right, you ain’t getting in, you ain’t going.”

“It’s not to say that we don’t want the girls to be found … but you best believe, especially in today’s political climate, if this were a group of Hispanic girls … out there, this would not be getting this type of coverage that they’re getting,” Perkins added. “No one would give a f—, and all these white people—the parents of these little girls—would be saying things like, ‘They need to be deported’ [and] ‘They shouldn’t have been here in the first place.’” 

Reacting to the social media post Wednesday, Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson voiced alarm about the coarse comments on the Texas floods.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Hanson said in reference to Perkins’ comments. “It’s very, very disturbing.”

Perkins was appointed to Houston’s Food Insecurity Board in 2023 and her term expired in January 2025. Houston Mayor John Whitmire stated that he has taken steps to permanently remove Perkins from the board, according to a statement from the city’s communications chief. 

“The comments shared on social media [by Sade Perkins] 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 statement said. “Mayor John Whitmire has no plans to reappoint her, and the City is taking immediate steps to remove her permanently from the board.”

In response to the backlash, Perkins said in another video, “Do not negate the fact, alright, these are white people using their white power, alright, to try to bring me down, I guess.”

Perkins made her comments around the same time a Houston pediatrician stated President Donald Trump supporters who died in the floods got what they deserved. The doctor, Christina Propst, was fired from her employer Blue Fish Pediatrics, according to a statement from the provider.

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