Updated: 1:04 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2026
Months of social media sparring among some Inglewood mayoral candidates intensified this week when Fre’Drisha Dixon said that her opponent Raina Carrillo once used the N-word in front of her.
Dixon aired the allegation in the comments of an LA Local Instagram post listing the candidates and issues appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot. In response to another comment, she also suggested Carrillo is anti-Black.
Dixon, an attorney, initially told The LA Local she heard Carrillo use the N-word in conversation at an event two years ago, then on Monday texted a reporter the incident was actually one year ago. She said she did not address it in the moment because she felt it was not an appropriate time.
She declined to connect The LA Local with others who could corroborate her account, saying she didn’t want to drag mutual friends into the fray.
“It made me look at her completely different because it showed me that the word is a part of her vocabulary,” Dixon wrote in a text to The LA Local. “I think it’s important for Inglewood voters to know that this person, this non-Black person, who is asking to manage our city does use the N word. Not only is it inappropriate but it is also harmful and racist.”
In a statement to The LA Local, Carrillo, who works for the community violence prevention nonprofit 2nd Call, denied using the slur and said all of Dixon’s allegations are false.
“I have love and respect for Black people, brown people and people of every background,” Carrillo wrote in the same comment section of The LA Local Instagram post. Carrillo added that she has Black ancestry in addition to Mexican and Creole heritage.
“Anyone who knows my history, my community work and the people I have spent decades serving knows that my life’s work has been about bringing people together not dividing them,” she wrote. “Black and Brown communities should not be turned against one another for political purposes.”
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Dixon’s allegations are the latest entry in a series of tense social media interactions between some of the Inglewood mayoral candidates over the last few months, including in the comments of LA Local Instagram posts in March and July.
The race didn’t officially kick off until earlier this week, when the city posted a final candidate list, but Dixon, Carrillo and Arturo Martinez have been actively campaigning for months.
All three have critiqued the tone of some social media comments.
Carrillo wrote in an Instagram post about Dixon’s allegations that Inglewood deserves better than political mud-slinging.
Dixon initially told The LA Local she didn’t “have capacity to give energy to any social media nastiness.”
Martinez acknowledged he and others have contributed to a “Jerry Springer Show” atmosphere on social media.
“We need to elevate the conversation, elevate the decorum,” he said.
The three candidates have not previously held elected office but are hoping to unseat Inglewood Mayor James Butts, who has held the position for 15 years. Butts, who is a regular target of social media comments by the candidates and other community members, told The LA Local in an email he doesn’t track or engage with the comments section.
“A significant amount of social media commentary is factually unverified, false and sometimes posted through ghost accounts,” he wrote.
The two other people running for mayor, Inglewood Councilmember Gloria Gray and Joseph Soto, did not return requests for comment.
