Four Mrs. America contestants on Monday accused the pageant’s CEO David Marmel of using racially biased language at a recent event in Las Vegas. They called on him to apologize.
The four women made the accusations Monday at a news conference in Manhattan alongside lawyer Gloria Allred, according to The Associated Press.
{mosads}The women said that, during the Las Vegas event in August, Marmel told a group of four African-American contestants about things he had done for black people while also criticizing NFL players who have knelt during the national anthem to protest racial injustices.
The women also said Marmel told them that black women have too many children with multiple fathers and suggested that those fathers are drug dealers.
Crissy Timpson, Mrs. New Jersey, said Monday that she had heard Marmel make similar comments days earlier.
“Originally we weren’t going to say anything because we all thought, who would believe us,” she said, according to the AP. “If we came forward after the pageant, people would think we were just upset about either not winning or placing the way we wanted.”
Allred said the four women, who included three of the women that Marmel allegedly made the comments to, are not looking to file a lawsuit but want Marmel to apologize and implement sensitivity training.
“They have decided that it would be wrong to stay silent about this matter,” Allred said, according to the AP. “They feel it is their duty to share what they allege was their experience, because they do not want next year’s contestants to be subjected to what they consider to be racially offensive and demeaning comments which have hurt them and caused them so much pain.”
Mrs. America organization vice president Shawn Marshall denied the accusations, saying that Marmel did not use offensive language.
“If there’s an apology, they owe Mr. Marmel,” Marshall added, per the AP.