Racial Slur Broadcast Over Zoom as Indiana City Council Meeting Started

A town council in northwest Indiana was just getting started when its Zoom broadcast was interrupted by a screenshot of a racial epithet Monday night. The lone Black council member noticed it and erupted with anger.

The Highland Town Council went through their customary prayer and Pledge of Allegiance and had just sat down, and that’s when an image posted by a user named “John Williams” showed what appeared to be Black music artist London Yellow with the verbiage, “I don’t like (N-word),” which is a song by the artist.

Democrat Toya Smith, the lone Black member and only female on the five-seat council, noticed the image after it had been posted for at least 10 seconds.

“Does that say, ‘I don’t like (N-word)?’ Like, really?” Smith shockingly asked, according to the Chicago Tribune. “What?”

Smith lost a bid for reelection on Nov. 7, assuring a council of all white men after the win by Republican Doug Turich.

The image remained on the screen for almost half a minute while IT Director Ed Dabrowski looked for a quick way to eliminate it. The other council members appeared to be in shock.

Council Attorney John Reed asked the members if any of them displayed the image through file sharing.

“That’s ridiculous,” replied Republican Councilman Mark Schocke.

Smith, who was listed on the council’s agenda to lead both the prayer and Pledge of Allegiance, didn’t comment on the matter until later when there was an agenda item for remarks from the council.

“I’m so disgusted right now that we cannot get past racism,” Smith angrily said. “I sat there and watched that ‘We don’t like (N-word)’ 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."

“Well, I want Highland or whoever put it up there to know that this [N-word] will be coming back. I’m not defeated, but it is disgusting. And I want to thank the voters who allowed this [N-word] 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.”

Schocke called the image “despicable” and intolerable.

“What we saw earlier today was blatant racism,” Schocke said. “It’s despicable. It’s not welcome here, and we shouldn’t tolerate it in any way. Whoever did this, you’re not welcome here, and it’s a shame that in 2023, we’re still dealing with it.”

Republican councilman Phil Scheeringa said the council “loves” Smith and that the image was undeserved.

“Toya, I feel for you. You shouldn’t have to feel that way ever,”  Scheeringa, said. “I think everyone up here loves you and knows that wasn’t deserved at all.”

Dabrowski, the IT director, apologized for not being able to bring the image down sooner than when it happened, saying he’d never had to eliminate such a thing before. He added that enough information was obtained to turn over to the Highland Police Department.

The town left the unedited Zoom "open meeting" video on its Facebook page until getting several complaints on Tuesday.

“What we will not do is hide this person’s disgusting, racist action by sweeping it under the rug,” Dabrowski and Council President Tom Black wrote in a statement. “For the moment, the video stands as a stark reminder that evil still lives among us, and that we must be vigilant in protecting our society from such heinous acts.

"The video will be taken down at an appropriate time and has been reported to the proper authorities for investigatory purposes.”

It has since been removed.

Smith said that although she knows racist comments and actions are often carried out by people, she didn’t expect something like Monday night, which she felt was aimed directly at her.

“I feel like I was voted in, and now, the council is now back to five white guys. That’s why diversity training is so important,” Smith said.