Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

The meeting was virtual. The racism all too real.

Jahana Hayes 'Zoom bombed' by racists. Rosa DeLauro threatened on Twitter.

  • Politics
  • by Mark Pazniokas
  • October 13, 2020
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Congresswoman Jahana Hayes on a Zoom call Tuesday night.

The racist disruption Monday of a virtual community meeting hosted by Connecticut’s first Black congresswoman, Jahana Hayes, bothered Gary Winfield, but it did not surprise him. He is a Black state senator who has been called the N-word on social media.

And the evidence of a coordinated attack against the congresswoman prompted a flash of recognition in Jillian Gilchrest, a liberal white state representative. Her email, Twitter and Instagram addresses were posted last month in an online 4chan forum naming her among the “easy targets for online abuse.”

Hayes and her Zoom audience of 40 voters from Newtown were subjected to six minutes of racist whack-a-mole Monday night at the fourth in a series of nightly meetings before the Nov. 3 election. As soon as the first disrupter was muted, another popped up. 

“Only this time it’s the N-word on a loop set to music. This participant is also muted and removed from the meeting,” Hayes wrote in an essay posted Tuesday. “This is repeated by two more people, clearly a coordinated effort.”

Hayes, 47, a Democratic first-term member of Congress seeking re-election, wrote that she smiled and froze as the first man shouted, “Shut up, n-word.”

“Words matter and they cut deep, no matter how hard you try to suppress or ignore them–words hurt,” Hayes wrote. “In that moment I was reminded that I carry the weight of leading by example and knowing that everyone was watching my next step.”

While she wanted to be seen as unfazed, Hayes wrote, that was not the case.

“I am not ok that this happened. I am not ok, that this is not the first time this has happened in my life or that I’ve had to explain that this happens,” she wrote. “I am not ok, that I have to post a screenshot to prove it happened. I am not ok, that people will still doubt that it happened or the word of the forty or so participants on the call will be a necessary to ‘verify’ the incident happened.”

Hayes first publicized the racist incident on Twitter Monday night, saying the hackers repeatedly told her to “go pick your cotton.” They also praised President Donald Trump as “the best president the U.S. has ever had.”

Her campaign emailed her essay to supporters Tuesday along with a fundraising solicitation.

Asked how she was doing Tuesday night in the first of two more Zoom meetings, Hayes smiled and said, “OK.”

It was a small joke.

There was no repeat of Monday’s disruption, one that resonated with other politicians who find themselves relying on Zoom, as well as social media, as they campaign in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic.

They are both forums vulnerable to hackers and harassment.

“What happened to Jahana Hayes is not in isolation. I had a town hall forum over the summer to talk about racial healing after the killing of George Floyd,” said Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, who is white.

It was interrupted by someone screaming the N-word, Lesser said.

Hayes’ opponent, Republican David X. Sullivan, quickly denounced the disruption of her meeting.

“It is appalling that a bigoted coward would direct insults at Congresswoman Hayes, interfere and disrupt a legitimate campaign activity, and besmirch the reputation of the good people of the 5th District of Connecticut,” he said in a prepared statement.

Sullivan expressed hope that Zoom would be able to identify the offenders. To get on the Zoom call, participants had to be Zoom members, which required providing an active email account, and registering with Hayes’ office.

On Tuesday night, everyone was muted in two Zoom calls with constituents in Farmington and Danbury. To speak, a caller had to be recognized.

While Hayes dealt with racism, U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3rd District, was the target this week of pictures on Facebook and Twitter depicting a statue of Christopher Columbus, one that has already been removed from Wooster Square in New Haven, holding DeLauro’s decapitated head.

“This abhorrent photo depicts the beheading of a public official. That is an incitement to violence, and law enforcement is reviewing it. This act is part of the culture of violence being fostered by President Trump. Witness Michigan and Virginia,” DeLauro said.“These threats and hate in all its forms should be condemned by all, regardless of political party.”

The images were removed by Facebook and Twitter, she said.

Gilchrest, a state representative from West Hartford, said she is regularly threatened on social media. Four times, she said, she has filed complaints with local police at the urging of State Capitol Police.

The incident with Hayes comes in the final weeks of a bitterly polarized campaign season, one featuring a president, Donald J. Trump, who casually engages in racist tropes about crime and public housing and declined during a debate to denounce white supremacists. He has also frequently disparaged female politicians — particularly women of color — including Joe Biden’s running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, whom Trump called a “monster” after last week’s vice presidential debate.

“At best, I think his comments are clumsy,” said Rep. Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, the deputy House GOP leader. “At worst they are offensive.”

Democrats blame Trump for setting the ugly tone. Republicans cast the responsibility wider.

“The president and so many other people contributed to that,” Sullivan said. He faulted Joe Biden for saying that any Black voter who supports Trump is not really Black.

J.R. Romano, the Republican state chairman, on Tuesday equated Trump’s comments with “the hyperbole” of Democrats on other issues. Romano said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy suggested in 2018 that people opposed to Obamacare “want you to die.”

Erick Russell, 31, a Black lawyer from New Haven who is the vice chair of the Democratic State Central Committee, said the racist disruption of Hayes’s call would have generated an immediate bipartisan denunciation in the time before Trump.

“The Republican Party’s silence on this, it doesn’t send a very clear message,” Russell said.

Romano said social media and technology are providing opportunities unavailable in face-to-face communication and campaigning. He called the Hayes incident “beyond the pale.”

“That would never have happened in a real town hall,” he said.

Winfield, a Democratic senator from New Haven, said he has been criticized on Twitter by people echoing the president’s warnings that Democrats are intent on helping the urban poor invade the suburbs. Winfield, they say, is part of the movement.

One woman tweeted a story about a shooting in Stamford, saying this is what Winfield would bring to the suburbs.

Winfield said he is a favorite target because he has played visible roles in the repeal of the death penalty and, more recently, the passage of a police accountability bill. White colleagues get harassed, he said, but it is different for Black lawmakers.

“It is ‘how dare this Black person does this?’ A lot of this stuff gets racialized,” he said.

Winfield said the “Zoom bombing” experienced by Hayes was a different strain of racism than what he has confronted during debates about controversial issues. The racists had no grievance about a specific issue with Hayes, he said.

They simply can’t abide a woman of color sitting in Congress.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Pazniokas is the Capitol Bureau Chief and a co-founder of CT Mirror. He is a frequent contributor to WNPR, a former state politics writer for The Hartford Courant and Journal Inquirer, and contributor for The New York Times.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
Plan to expand child tax credit offers hope along with direct payments
by Lisa Backus | C-HIT.ORG

When her car started making a noise more than a year ago, Chinara Johnson parked the vehicle and hasn’t used it since. As a New Haven mother of 5-year-old twin boys, one of whom is on the autism spectrum, and an 8-year-old daughter, Johnson doesn’t have the money to get the car running properly again. […]

Republicans on key committee oppose no-excuse absentee ballot voting
by Mark Pazniokas

Republicans signaled Friday they will try to block fast-track action on a constitutional amendment allowing no-excuse voting by absentee ballot.

Ned Lamont’s year in the shadow of COVID
by Mark Pazniokas

Ned Lamont has been the face, voice, and interpreter of the COVID crisis, mourning deaths, explaining setbacks and cautiously celebrating.

With billions in federal relief on the way to CT, legislators assert their role in deciding how to spend it
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

With an unusual bill, state legislators are reminding Gov. Ned Lamont they have significant role in disbursing federal coronavirus relief.

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller wins vacant Senate seat
by Mark Pazniokas

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, won a special election to the state Senate.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion Assisted suicide lobby spreads falsehoods to promote systemic ableism
by Stephen Mendelsohn

Proponents of assisted suicide repeatedly spread falsehoods to promote their lethal and ableist agenda.  The February 8 op-ed, “Aid in dying is not assisted suicide” is no exception. Suicide is defined as the act of taking one’s life intentionally.  The person who intentionally ingests a prescribed lethal overdose more closely fits the dictionary definition of suicide than the despondent person who jumps off a bridge.  The desire for suicide is a cry for help, even when redefined as a “medical treatment option.”

Opinion TCI will create a fourth gasoline tax
by Christian A. Herb

The Transportation Climate Initiative, or TCI, calls for a proposed emissions fee on gasoline to help battle climate change. On the surface, supporters say it is a small price to pay to help save the planet; and if you truly believe that this is the case, then you should consider voting for it. Despite the administration’s efforts to go out of their way to not call TCI a tax, the simple truth is that it will only create additional financial hardships on lower- and middle-income families struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.

Opinion Let’s keep telehealth when the pandemic ends
by Steven Madonick, MD

Telehealth may lead to positive, even transformational changes in psychiatric care, and Connecticut needs to keep it after the pandemic. Connecticut needs to pass the necessary laws to continue telehealth and telephonic care.

Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO