Video: Parent Responds with Racist Retort at School Meeting: ‘Why Didn’t You Stay in Mexico?’

A community in Michigan is reeling after video captured a man making a racist comment toward another parent at a meeting that had been called to discuss concerns about diversity and acceptance at schools.

Adrian Iraola was standing up with a microphone Monday, sharing a story with parents and school administrators, in Saline, Michigan, about how racism in the school had been affecting his child when he was interrupted.

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Suddenly, as he was midsentence, a man behind him spoke out.

“Then why didn’t you stay in Mexico?” asked the man, who was identified by Ann Arbor News/MLive.com as Tom Burtell.

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The remark was met with audible gasps as parents and attendees turned around to look at Burtell, who is white.

“You need to leave,” a woman could be heard saying in the video obtained by ABC News.

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The school district, which is predominantly white, said in a statement Tuesday that “hate, prejudice, and racism have no place in our schools or our community.”

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According to Ann Arbor News/M Live.com, the meeting on Monday had been called to discuss solutions after remarks made in a social media group in January by some high school students had been deemed an “act of racism” by administrators.

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“But you’re complaining about being here,” Burtell said.

In another video posted by Arbor News/MLive.com, Burtell said he’d been a victim of racism “all the time.”

“Try being white and walk in a black neighborhood,” he told the parents. “See what happens.”

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