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 By Doha Madani 
 
 Four former Mrs. America contestants alleged on Monday that the pageant's co-founder and president made offensive, racist comments about black men and women during an event this past August in Las Vegas, Nevada. 
 
 Mrs. America President and CEO David Marmel allegedly made remarks about racial stereotypes and professional athletes who kneel during the national anthem while at a party prior to the televised competition, the women claimed. 
 
 The four women — Kimberly Phillips, Brandy Palacios, Jeri Ward, and Crissy Timpson — said that they could not stay silent on the matter and did not want other women to be subjected to those types of comments. 
 
 Phillips, the current Mrs. Deleware, claimed that she was sitting with Marnel at a party on August 21, 2018, when he made the comments. 
 
 Phillips, Palacios and Timpson were sitting with another unnamed black contestant when Marmel allegedly told them that "black women need to stop having babies with four baby daddies and all black men are in jail because they need to stop selling drugs and killing each other." 
 
 From left: Mrs. Delaware America Kimberly Phillips, Mrs. New Jersey America Crissy Timpson, attorney Gloria Allred, Mrs. Ohio America Jeri Ward, and Mrs. Missouri Brandy Palacios, at a news conference in New York on Oct. 15, 2018. Richard Drew / AP 
 
 Marmel also asked whether the women knew about his work with the Black Achievement Awards, claiming he thought of creating the award shows when he saw Ebony magazine's Top 100 influential black people. He then said he knew the magazine owners and that they were "the most racist people he ever met because they all used the term n----r freely with each other." 
 
 The women also alleged that Marmel said it was fine that he used the term because the Ebony owners called him "brother." 
 
 "At this point, he put his arm next to mine and in order to compare skin color," Palacios, the current Mrs. Missouri, said. 
 
 Ward said she was not seated at the table with the other women, but was behind Marmel at another table and corroborated her fellow contestants' story. 
 
 Timpson, the Mrs. New Jersey, claimed she had heard Marmel make similar comments to her just days prior when he introduced himself to her. Marmel allegedly told Timpson "the asshole who kneels needs to stop disrespecting my flag" upon learning that Timpson's husband currently serves in the U.S. Air Force. 
 
 Attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing the four women, said there are currently no plans to file a claim against Marmel or the Mrs. America Organization. Allred said the former contestants ask that the organization create a plan of action, one that includes sensitivity training on racial bias and stereotyping. 
 
 Marmel told NBC News after the women's news conference that he did have a conversation with them about race in August but that the women were wrongly characterizing his statements — calling their statements "ugly" and "false." He also said he didn't understand the former contestants "crusade" and questioned whether this was "reverse racism." 
 
 David Marmel, President and CEO, Mrs. America Inc. appears at a press conference in Moscow on September 30, 2014. Nikolai Galkin / ITAR-TASS/Alamy Live News file 
 
 He said he joined the women at the party in Las Vegas after seeing them sitting alone and felt concerned that they were separated from the group. Marmel said he did not want to seem as if he was favoring them and the women gave him "permission to speak off the record." 
 
 Marmel said he had spoken to the women about how he — as a young Californian who went south to play baseball — in the 1950s saw signs that said "No Jews" and that used derogatory term for black people. The women also recounted this story at their press conference. Marmel said that the experience had impacted him as a young Jewish man. 
 
 He allegedly told the women about "how that experience brought me closer to my African-American brothers and sisters because I was also discriminated against," Marmel said. "It was an experience I shared with African-American baseball players." 
 
 Marmel also said that his other comments were discussing things he had learned from conversations with staff at Ebony and Jet magazines, where he was told that African-American children being born out of wedlock and crime were big issues facing the black community. 
 
 "An exchange of perspective is a good thing there was nothing subjective about the conversation, it was review of the total experience of the life of David Marmel," he told NBC News. 
 
 He said those experiences pushed him to create the Black Achievement Awards. Marmel claimed that during his time as executive producer he hired black staff and highlighted the achievements of hundreds of African Americans. 
 
 He told NBC News that he had been invited once to dinner by the NCAAP with the family of Martin Luther King Jr. to be thanked for his work for the community. ||||| David Marmel denies the claims and says his comments during a ‘confidential session’ were taken out of context 
 
 The director of the Mrs America beauty pageant has been accused of racism by several contestants in the competition, with one woman alleging that she was told “black women need to stop having babies and having four baby daddies”. 
 
 Four 2018 Mrs America contestants say that David Marmel, executive director and co-founder of the pageant, made a series of racist generalizations at this year’s contest in Las Vegas. 
 
 One woman alleged that Marmel suggested black men were “drug dealers” who are “killing each other”, while another contestant said Marmel told her “black men are criminals who need to stop shooting each other”. 
 
 Marmel, the executive director of Mrs America who co-founded the competition in 1978, denied having made racially insensitive remarks. 
 
 He said some of his comments had been taken out of context during “what was agreed to be a confidential session where we were going to consider our collective experiences”. 
 
 Speaking at a news conference with women’s rights lawyer Gloria Allred in New York City, Mrs America contestant Crissy Timpson said that Marmel issued a number of racially charged comments in two separate conversations at the Mrs America contest in August 2018. 
 
 She alleged that during a meeting in Marmel’s office he said, apparently in reference to Colin Kaepernick, the NFL player who protested against police brutality during the national anthem, that “the asshole needs to stop disrespecting my flag”. 
 
 The white southerners who changed their views on racism Read more 
 
 Timpson, who is black, said she told Marmel that Kaepernick was not disrespecting the flag. 
 
 “David changed the subject and said ‘well you people need to stop killing each other, we need people to bring up the black community’.” she said. 
 
 “He told me that: ‘You black women need to stop having babies and having four baby daddies, your men are drug dealers, incarcerated, in jail, you are on welfare and killing each other.’” 
 
 Timpson appeared with fellow contestants Brandy Palacios, Kimberley Phillips and Jeri Ward on Monday. The three other women shared similar stories of Marmel’s behavior at the contest. 
 
 Allred, who has been a women’s attorney since the 1970s, most recently representing some of the women who have accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, said she had been “shocked” to hear the Mrs America entrants allege they had been subjected to “racially insensitive comments”. 
 
 “They feel that 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,” Allred said. 
 
 Timpson, Palacios, Phillips and Ward were competing in the Mrs America tournament after winning each of their own statewide beauty pageants. It cost each of the women $1,200 to compete in the national pageant, and the four said they had spent thousands more on travel, clothing and treatments. 
 
 Allred said the women had “no plans” to file a lawsuit or seek damages. 
 
 “We ask [Marmel] to acknowledge what they allege that he said, take responsibility for it and apologize to them,” Allred said. 
 
 Miss America accuses pageant leaders of bullying and manipulation Read more 
 
 Timpson, Palacios, Phillips and Ward also want Marmel to undergo sensitivity training “focused on the issue of racial bias and racial stereotypes”, Allred said, “so that what they allege they were subjected to never happens again”. 
 
 Recalling the conversations, Marmel said he relayed his experience as a Jewish baseball player who was subjected, along with African American team-mates, to abuse from crowds. The women had complained that Marmel had used the “N-word” when recalling a sign he had seen at one baseball game, which he confirmed. 
 
 “For them to twist that into me using that slur as some sort of epithet is disgusting and says something about them.” 
 
 Marmel said he had founded the Annual American Black Achievement awards television show, which he said had highlighted black people’s achievement. He denied having made the statements listed by Timpson – specifically he said “that’s bullshit” – and said he would not be apologising or undergoing training as the women requested. 
 
 “Based upon my career and what I’ve done for the African American community, does it sound like I need sensitivity training?” 
 
 Marmel’s Mrs America pageant is the second incarnation of the contest. The original Mrs America, started by east coast publicity guru Burt Nevins, began in 1938, originally as a ruse to attract people to the New Jersey boardwalk, and ran until his death in 1968, according to an exhaustive Jezebel article. 
 
 Marmel revived the pageant in 1976, and the contest has taken place every year since. This year’s contest, held to decide who would serve as Mrs America 2019, was held in Las Vegas in August. It was won by Nicole Cook, from Illinois. ||||| The four contestants in this year's Mrs. America pageant are calling for an apology from the pageant's owner over accusations he used racial slurs and stereotypes in a conversation, pose for photos, in... (Associated Press) 
 
 The four contestants in this year's Mrs. America pageant are calling for an apology from the pageant's owner over accusations he used racial slurs and stereotypes in a conversation, pose for photos, in New York, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. They are, from left: Mrs. Delaware America Kimberly Phillips, Mrs.... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — Four contestants in this year's Mrs. America pageant on Monday called for the pageant's CEO to apologize over accusations he used racial slurs and stereotypes in a conversation at a contest-related event. 
 
 The four women, three African-American and one white, spoke at a news conference in Manhattan with lawyer Gloria Allred, accusing David Marmel of using racially biased language in Las Vegas in August. 
 
 Allred said that while her clients don't intend to file a lawsuit, but they do want Marmel to apologize and implement an action plan including sensitivity training. 
 
 "They have decided that it would be wrong to stay silent about this matter," Allred said. "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." 
 
 The women said at a pre-competition party, Marmel sat down with a group of four African American contestants, including the three who spoke Monday. The white contestant was also in the room but behind Marmel, they said. 
 
 They said he began talking about what he had done for black people, including developing a program recognizing African-American achievements. But they said he also made negative comments about NFL players who knelt during the national anthem, as well as statements saying black women need to stop having so many babies with multiple fathers and that those men were drug dealers and in jail. 
 
 They said he talked about his time as a baseball player in the 1960s and going to the South where there were signs prohibiting Jews and blacks from entering. In recounting that, he used the N-word, they said. 
 
 Crissy Timpson, Mrs. New Jersey, said the party was actually the second time she had heard Marmel's comments, and that he had said them to her a couple of days before when she arrived in Las Vegas for the pageant. 
 
 "Originally we weren't going to say anything because we all thought who would believe us," she said. "If we came forward after the pageant, people would think we were just upset about either not winning or placing the way we wanted." 
 
 Shawn Marshall, Mrs. America organization vice president, vehemently pushed back against the accusations, saying Marmel used no language that should have been interpreted as offensive, and was speaking to them about his life experiences with the African-American community. 
 
 In reference to the comments about the South, Marshall said Marmel was reflecting that the signs referred to him as well, since he is Jewish. 
 
 He said the women had asked Marmel to speak to them. 
 
 "If there's an apology, they owe Mr. Marmel," he said.
– Four contestants in this year's Mrs. America pageant want CEO and co-founder David Marmel to apologize for racially charged comments he allegedly made at a party before the competition. The women say Marmel, who is white, joined a table with four black contestants and told them "black women need to stop having babies with four baby daddies and all black men are in jail because they need to stop selling drugs and killing each other." They say Marmel bragged about what he had done for black people, including creating the Black Achievement Awards, but also repeatedly used the N-word when discussing his contacts at Ebony magazine and his experiences as a baseball player in the South, the AP reports. Three of the women who were at the table— Kimberly Phillips, Brandy Palacios, and Crissy Timpson —appeared at a press conference Monday along with attorney Gloria Allred and Jeri Ward, a white contestant who was seated nearby and heard Marmel's remarks. Allred said the women are not planning to sue, but they want Marmel to apologize and undergo sensitivity training "so that what they allege they were subjected to never happens again," the Guardian reports. Marmel rejects the allegations, saying the woman are totally misrepresenting their "off the record" conversation. He tells NBC that the allegations are "ugly" and "false" and he thinks he might be the victim of "reverse racism."