Mayor Tom Watson issued a statement during Tuesday’s City Commission meeting addressing the racist comments posted during a virtual forum hosted last month by the H.L. Neblett Community Center. Watson called those who submitted the comments “cowards” for their actions and condemned their behavior publicly for the first time.
The home-buying empowerment forum — part of a series of Black History Month events held in partnership with Owensboro Black Expo and the Northwest Neighborhood Alliance — featured a panel of Black community members and leaders.
The virtual forum was held during Black History Month and included a panel of Black community leaders who discussed the benefits of purchasing a home, answering questions submitted to them by the community along the way.
“During this event, the panelists were attacked repeatedly with racial slurs and other offensive speech by some of the viewers,” Watson said. “When the public comments section was turned off, offenders continued to send racial slurs directly to the panelists through the question-and-answer section.”
Calling those who wrote the comments “cowards,” Watson also described the behavior as “very, very disgusting.”
“That doesn’t need to happen in our community,” he said. “They were trying to do a really good thing to help the people in that community with home buyership and the skills it takes to achieve personal, financial security.”
According to Neblett Center Executive Director Olga McKissic, the N-word was sent more than 75 times. Other messages — as seen in screenshots shared with Owensboro Times — included “white power” as well as the F-word and a slur for Jewish people, among other things.
McKissic took screenshots of the usernames of those who’d written the racial slurs and filed a police report with the Owensboro Police Department.
According to OPD Public Information Officer Andrew Boggess, as of last week they had a report and it was being investigated.
McKissic said 286 different people viewed the virtual forum through Zoom (the video can also be seen on Facebook, though the comments could only be seen on the Zoom platform). She said she wasn’t sure whether the racial slurs came from a local source or not.
“What we do know is that it happened here on a Black History Month event,” she said last week. “This is what’s happening in today’s time, right here in Owensboro.”
