Racial slurs hurled at Raleigh council member during hijacked Zoom meeting

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Mary Black would like to think we live in a post-racial world, but during a Monday evening Zoom call with the Midtown Citizens Advisory Council, she was brought back to reality.

"It was pretty vicious. They were calling me names: the N word and B word. They were telling me to go back to Africa -- I don't belong here and making monkey noises," said Mary Black, a Raleigh council member representing District A. "When the call ended my hands were shaking and I burst into tears."

The meeting was hijacked by several people who didn't have their camera on or real names listed.

"They were making negative comments about the police and negative comments about Jewish community members," she said.

Larry Helfant is chair of the Midtown Citizens Advisory Council. He was at the meeting in-person with several other community members listening in.

"Shock first. There was a constant outcry to just shut it down. Didn't want to give people any more of a floor to voice their opinions whatever they may be," said Helfant.

According to Black, fellow council members are now rallying around her in support including Mayor Pro Tem Jonathan Melton.

"Don't bring your nonsense and racism and awful, disgusting rhetoric to city meetings," he said. "Don't bring it to public forums. It's not going to be tolerated."

The Raleigh Citizen Advisory Council oversees the Midtown Citizen Advisory Council. They released this statement stating:

"We strongly condemn this inexcusable behavior and attack on our community and representatives of city council. We will be implementing stronger policies on managing meetings and dealing quickly and effectively with disruptive behaviors."

This isn't the first time Black has experienced something like this. Nonetheless, she won't let it stop her from representing her community proudly.

"I know we're in at a time where people want to see less DEI and less theories around race, but I think now is the time to center those discussions and having those hard conversations," she said.