Christina Silva, 24 of Ecuadorean and Mexican descent, filed suit against the Miss California USA pageant on Thursday for half a million dollars alleging “rigging and racial bias.” Christina was crowned the winner on November 25 only to have her title taken away three days later when executive director Keith Lewis explained “there has been a mistake and you are not the winner.” The actual winner was apparently Raquel Beezley. The AP reports,
The lawsuit claims Lewis was “uncomfortable with the fact that Miss Silva spoke Spanish with certain vendors; he felt that it may detract from the caliber of the pageant and some of the ‘all American girls’ may not opt to compete in the following year.”
Silva alleges that Lewis, the pageant, its producer K2 Productions and the Miss Universe Organization engaged in fraud, negligence, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other charges.
Lewis basically called the allegations ridiculous.
“I’ve had three winners since I’ve been a director,” Lewis said. “Two have been African American, two of four in the history of the state pageant. And the current Miss California USA is 25 percent Filipino,” Lewis said, referring to Beezley. “I think my record speaks for itself.”
Lewis forgot to end his argument with, “Not only that, I have a friend who’s Mexican. How could I possibly be racist?!” That would have been game, set and match for Ms. Christina Silva.
I feel sorry for her , that must be very emotional.. only because the girls work hard for this and then for them to take it back..
“25 percent Filipino” I love how she had to throw that in there.
I feel terribly sorry for Ms. Silva, but to make it a racial issue is wrong. it was an admitted counting error. They could let her see the counts to verify it. At this point, she’s angry and wants retribution. It’s sad that it has to come down to playing the race card. If it were true, I’d be a big supporter. I just think she’s being caddy about it.