Advice on how to handle a racist prank, very likely done by a Director, during a remote Board meeting

Our POA had a open Board Meeting a few weeks ago. I was on the agenda to talk about my research of a management company (I basically endorsed it and gave reason - the hiring of that company is now on agenda as a vote item at the upcoming annual meeting.)

The meeting was on Zoom and all attendees, including the Board, were remote through Zoom. The first 30 minutes of the meeting was an open town all where anyone could talk or ask questions. During that town hall portion, many asked questions about the management company since that is a big endeavor.

The wife of one of the directors (that director is pro management company) asked if the management company would do anything about porta-potties in front of houses.

Context: In the Spring and early Summer a few houses had porta-potties in front of them because they had such extensive damage from the Texas-freeze, that much of the houses had to be repaired and there were fulltime construction crews there. None had porta-potties for more than a month or two, and I assume it would be an OSHA requirement. None have been in front of houses for 6+ months. So it is a non issue and seems odd to bring up at the meeting, especially in the context of asking what a management company would do about them.

She was told if it is violation then a management company would likely deal with it as part of its violation patrols. That was not enough for her and she kept asking about porta-potties. Then all of a sudden some loud, and very vulgar language was heard. It sounded like a Dave Chapelle skit - literally, I am pretty sure it was Dave Chapelle. And it was using vulgar terms about "restroom activities." After searching for Dave Chapelle toilet skits, I learned he had an ongoing skit called "Redman Potty Fresh" which was parody on the real Ty-D-Bol man commercials of the 70s (little man on a boat in commode.) I think one of those skits is what was heard.

An African American is running for a Board position - she talked during the meeting also. The director, whose wife asked about porta-potties, is thought to be actively trying to make sure the African American lady is not elected. Shortly after the meeting, the African American lady was informed by a neighbor that some others in the neighborhood are actively calling other residents to tell them that the foul language was said by the African American lady's husband.

I am suggesting a private investigator be hired to learn who played that recording. There is no excuse for this type of behavior, and if the director was involved, I think not only should he be asked to get off the Board, but he should move as well.

Any suggestions on how this should be handled?

It sounds like someone played a skit with foul language and someone is spreading a false rumor about the husband of a candidate who happens to be African American. Am I missing something. Nothing in your comments makes me think racism.

Obviously, if people don't want her because of her race, that is racist and unacceptable, but nothing you wrote implies that race is a motive.

It ran into the porta-potty questions as if it was a script because it started of saying something along the lines "you aint ganna tell me where to "sh%t" followed by other foul mouth stuff related to relieving oneself." Coincidences are coincidences but the way this sounded like a reply to what was being said by the director's wife was completely in sync. I think it ended with something like "I will sh%t on your white a$$."

If his humor 'playing on black stereotypes' (according to you) is so deplorable, how come "woke" communities from SNL (as recently as Nov, 2020) to the Kennedy Center to the Emmy awards have embraced him?

Ever notice how SNL plays on white stereotypes?

I support the Board condemning the interruption. Else I think making this into a huge issue is going to cause more problems than it solves.

I’m with AugustinD: someone should have been moderating the meeting, and they should have muted the audio as soon as it was apparent that some kind of prank was happening. I don’t mean to second-guess you, but I think hiring a PI etc is a bit much based on this single incident. If it becomes a pattern … maybe then.

If it were me, I’d simply find out who was moderating the call and ask them if they could be a bit more diligent about muting inappropriate content. It might simply be a matter of training - even after a couple of years of Covid, I’ve encountered a lot of people “running” videoconferences by virtue of position and with little understanding of how it works.

Finally: pulling up a bit of DC schtick about portapotties isn’t something that would require massive planning; if you’re sitting at a network-connected computer anyhow, it’d maybe take 30 seconds to find something on YouTube. A couple of months ago I was on a conference call coming back from a break and I pulled up and played the beginning of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s “Karen Evil #9, 1st Impression, Pt 2” (“Welcome back my friends / To the show that never ends”). Inappropriate? Maybe. But “we live in the days of miracle and wonder”, and it takes maybe 15 seconds to go from “idea” to “implementation”.

BillD

So … you think this director - who was running the meeting - played the DC schtick while his own wife was talking, and intentionally didn’t mute it (because this would somehow undermine a black woman who was running for the Board)?

I’m clearly not really seeing whatever it is you are seeing in this incident. But against my better judgement, I’ll ask: was the session recorded? If so, can you get ahold of a recording? I lose track of all of the different VC systems and their individual characteristics, but at least some of them will display a “VU-meter” indication of the audio input level from each participant. Or sometimes they’ll highlight the ‘active’ speaker at any given time. And some systems allow only a single speaker at a time … sorry, my point is: see if you can get a recording and see if it can offer any indication about what happened.

Or maybe just ask the director: “So you were running the videoconference the other night? What was the deal with that Dave Chapell thing?”

I get the sense that you think this director person is a racist a-hole? I’m personally not a fan of racism, but I don’t think it’s currently illegal (in the USA) and I doubt there are any laws or by-laws that could force them off the Board (or out of the neighborhood) purely for being a racist a-hole. Your POA by-laws might provide a process for voting them off of the Board (often via a majority vote of residents) - so if you simply want them off of the Board, you could perhaps convince a majority of residents that this person is unfit for the job and get them kicked? Gotta be honest: what you’ve presented so far has been less than convincing. Sorry.

BillD