LAFAYETTE, La. – A Louisiana superintendent is drawing fire after he allegedly referred to local African American leaders as the “black mafia” in a recent luncheon for women in business.

“He said, ‘There are some – I like to call them the black mafia – who have a hold on the black community,’” former local NAACP boss Patricia Colbert-Cormier said of the Lafayette Parish School System superintendent Pat Cooper’s Oct. 2 speech.

“Quite a few people were offended by it, both black and white.”

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Cooper is currently embroiled in a lawsuit seeking to keep three board members who have been critical of him in the past from voting to oust him from the school district, the Advocate reports.

Colbert-Cormier contends the superintendent spent his speech promoting three incumbents as well as District 4 challenger Ericka Williams, who is running against incumbent Tehmi Chassion, both of which are black.

Cooper’s lawsuit targets Chassion, and board members Mark Babineaux and Hunter Beasley, according to the news site.

District Judge Durwood Conque Friday heard arguments in the lawsuit. Cooper contends the board members are incapable of being impartial in deciding his future in the district, while the defendants said they’re able to be fair and unbiased.

“Cooper declined in the courtroom Friday morning to elaborate on what he meant by ‘black mafia’ or offer further explanation of the comments he made at the luncheon. But he did not deny using the phrase,” the Advocate reports.

“The only thing I meant by that is we have a fresh face running for office,” Cooper said, according to the news site.

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Conque is expected to rule on the lawsuit Wednesday, as well as whether the school district’s budget was legally approved. Colbert-Cormier told the Advocate she believe Cooper has got to go “to restore some order to the school system,” and that she takes offense to the superintendent’s lawsuit.

“By denying two of the representatives in north Lafayette to vote will significantly disenfranchise a large number of people, telling them that their vote doesn’t count,” Cooper wrote in to the news site.

“Then to gloss over what is actually taking place, Dr. Beasley is also named as a defendant, thus attempting to disenfranchise part of the south side of town. We’re talking about 60,000 plus voters.”