Racist people are everywhere. They could be your neighbors, your teachers, your bosses, and even the people you follow on social media. There’s no escaping them sometimes—even if you are in a virtual meeting.
Exhibit A: On Monday, a town council meeting in Highland, Ind. that had just began was interrupted after their Zoom broadcast showed an image of a Black man wearing a cowboy hat, overalls, and blonde wig and the phrase “I DON’T LIKE NIGGERS,” in bold letters, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The image was posted by a user whose name was “John Williams” on Zoom. The screenshot was reportedly taken from London Yellow, a recording artist who happens to have a song where he repeats the phrase multiple times.
This incident is an example of “Zoombombing,” which is when an internet troll intrudes on a video call and displays racist and discriminatory images to disrupt said meeting, according to Tufts University.
As expected, the lone Black person in the meeting was not happy about the message that was displayed and made sure everyone on the council knew about it. Toya Smith, the only Black council member, noticed the image 10 seconds after it was posted and immediately questioned why anyone would share it.
More from the Chicago Tribune:
“Does that say, ‘I don’t like (N-word)?’ Like, really?” Smith said, stunned. “What?”
The rest of the council and audience members reacted with shock as soon as they realized what the image said. It remained on the screen for a total of 20 seconds as IT Director Ed Dabrowski searched for the button to eliminate it.
After waiting for other council members to finish their thoughts, Smith went on a rant, yelling, “I’m so disgusted right now that we cannot get past racism. “I sat there and watched that ‘We don’t like Niggers’ on that screen for the longest before it was taken down—it wasn’t a second, I watched it—and I was just going to wait and see who was going to say something.”
She continued, “Well, I want Highland or whoever put it up there to know that this nigger will be coming back. I’m not defeated, but it is disgusting. And I want to thank the voters who allowed this nigger to make history, to serve, and I’ll be back. But … even in my time, I never thought I’d see something like this, and it’s disgusting it stayed up as long as it did.”
The Highland Police Department is currently investigating the identity of the person who posted the screenshot during the Zoom broadcast.
Dabrowski, the IT Director, was able to pull enough info to request that Zoom release the missing information that will help police identify the culprit in this incident, according to the Chicago Tribune.