The candidate forum started much like any other for Montgomery County council member Will Jawando (D-At Large).

       He talked about what he had done in office to address inequities he’d seen growing up in this Washington suburb. His 3-year-old son made an accidental appearance on the Zoom, waving and grinning. He fielded questions about campaign finance and how to involve the community on police reform.

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       Then came the ‘Zoom-bombers,’ spewing gibberish — and racism.

       “Shut up, n-----,” one said, as the chat began to fill with slurs.

       Jawando, who became only the second Black lawmaker to be elected countywide in Montgomery when he won a seat on the council in 2018, did not pause.

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       “This only works,” Jawando said, his voice calm, “if we engage the community.”

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       The targeting of Jawando on Tuesday quickly became a talking point in this suburb, which prides itself on being a diverse, liberal enclave but has seen vitriol directed at Black and Latino public officials, including former health officer Travis Gayles and council member Nancy Navarro (D-District 4).

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       County Executive Marc Elrich (D) during a Thursday news conference promised the government would investigate the Zoom with Jawando, saying that he hopes whoever is responsible is found. By afternoon, the council had put out a statement condemning the “disgusting, racist comments and hate-filled obscenities” directed at Jawando.

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       For the first-term lawmaker, it prompted reflection about how to handle such incidents — and their cumulative toll.

       Will Jawando, the second Black person elected countywide in Montgomery County, Md., was verbally attacked on Feb. 8 after people crashed a Zoom meeting. (Progressive Legacy)

       Racism is not new for Jawando. There are calls his office receives. The slurs, anonymous and not, on the Internet. A threat posted on a photo of his son in front of a Black Lives Matter sign.

       Jawando noted in an interview how few Black leaders the county has elected. The first to win countywide was Isiah Leggett, who was elected to the council in the mid-1980s before becoming county executive in 2006. And Jawando said he imagines he’s drawn attention for his leadership on issues related to policing and discrimination, including sponsoring bills to require an outside investigation of police-involved deaths, ban discrimination against natural hairstyles and prohibit landlords from raising rent for 90 days after a public emergency. He has also told personal stories about being arrested in law school and stopped in 2019 by a state trooper when he was on his way to a workout.

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       “I get a lot of nasty things,” Jawando said, explaining why he continued speaking so calmly. “And unfortunately, part of me has just gotten used to it.”

       But there are increasingly acknowledged physical and mental consequences of racism, which in 2020 led to Jawando sponsoring a resolution declaring it a public health crisis and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year declaring it a public health threat. Studies point to a variety of evidence of negative health effects, including evidence that Black Americans who report more experience with racism have higher levels of stress, which causes cells to age more rapidly. Black Americans not only experienced a disproportionate amount of covid-19-related deaths, but also saw rates of depression, anxiety and suicide increase in 2020.

       After the Zoom meeting concluded, Jawando said he was prepared to suppress the experience and move on. But then he noticed how strongly others reacted. He received apologies by members of the group that hosted the forum, Progressive Legacy, and saw the indignation of his chief of staff, who posted a clip to the video on her Facebook. He’s grown increasingly disturbed by what happened since Tuesday, and decided to talk openly about it in the hopes it would help make clear that such behavior can’t be accepted.

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       “The big takeaway for me was that this is not okay,” Jawando said in an interview. “It is not okay to accept it and to bury it — that is part of the problem, too. … We have got to call it out and make it untenable.”

       Jawando said he is not sure exactly the best way to keep going after such incidents; he’s not sure there is a right way. He focuses on what he can do: pray, work out, talk to his family and remember — part of the reason they are threatened is because he is effective.