Video of a Farmington Hills school board trustee telling a reporter not to "come in here speaking Arabic" at a campaign event has kicked up a storm of criticism across metro Detroit and online. In the clip, Board Secretary Angie Smith says the other candidate "doesn't know how to work a room" and urges them to "represent everyone" rather than "just represent one ethnicity." Civil-rights groups and local Democrats quickly condemned the remarks as racist and Islamophobic.
As reported by CBS News Detroit, Smith made the comments during an interview at a campaign event for Rep. Haley Stevens. The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the remarks "have undertones of anti-Arab racism," according to CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid in a statement issued through CAIR-MI. CBS News Detroit also reported that the outlet reached out to the school board and Smith for comment and had not yet received a response.
What The Clip Shows And What Came Before
According to Detroit Metro Times, the exchange was recorded at a campaign stop held at a Teamsters building on Trumbull Avenue in Detroit and was posted to X by local reporter Sam Robinson. Detroit Metro Times reported that the post drew hundreds of responses and that a review of dozens of El-Sayed events showed he rarely speaks Arabic or uses Arabic music on stage. Internal records obtained by WDIV show the board censured Smith in 2020 for conduct that officials said disrupted district operations.
High-Stakes Primary Raises The Temperature
The incident lands with the Democratic U.S. Senate primary less than two weeks away, and outside spending has already reshaped the race. As reported by the Associated Press, AIPAC-affiliated groups and other outside spenders have poured tens of millions into the contest backing Stevens, which is their largest investment in a single race, a factor that has amplified divisions over Israel policy and outside money in Democratic primaries nationwide.
Local Democratic leaders said they were dismayed by the flap. "I think it's very unfortunate that that's happening. I don't like to see the discourse," Glenda Stainback, chair of Democrats of South Oakland County, told CBS News Detroit. For now, the Farmington Hills school board has not announced any disciplinary action, and both campaigns have not responded to requests for comment, according to CBS News Detroit.
