City Council Candidate's Comments On Chinese Olympic Officials Causes Controversy

A city council candidate's comments on Olympic competition have raised charges of racism among some of his opponents.

The comments by Chris Crow were detailed in a report on the East Bay Citizen website.

Crow was responding to complaints from Chinese officials who said the United States won the most medals at the 2012 Olympic Games because of their larger head and chest sizes.

Crow says the criticisms are being orchestrated by supporters of his opponent in the Nov. 6 election.

On Thursday, Crow sent the following statement to Patch:

"The East Bay Citizen story contending I am a racist is unfounded and unfair. As a person who grew up in an Asian-American household I find it surprising that I would be accused of being racist against Asians.  My comment on the Yahoo News Story about the Communist Party's statements regarding Chinese people's perceived physical disadvantage has been grossly misinterpreted.  I certainly did not mean to offend anyone and I am sorry that some people were offended.

I never said all Chinese people are cheaters or sore losers.  My comment was meant as irony to show just how absurd the Communist Party spokesperson's statements were about their own athletes.  I'm a part of the wrestling program at San Leandro High School and most of our wrestlers are Asian, and several of them have the potential to one day win the Olympics if they choose to dedicate themselves enough.

As for the origin of this story.   I was Facebook friends with Benny Lee and Steven Tavares, the reporter for East Bay Citizen.  Only my Friends can see my personal Facebook Timeline posts, so they were the only two people involved in this saga that could have taken the screen shot of my comment on Facebook.  Tavares would have just told me if he did, so that only leaves Benny Lee and he used it as an opportunity to attack my credibility.

I have faith the voters will see through this ruse and distraction, and continue to support candidates who are engaged on the issues, involved in the community, and bringing real solutions to the table.  For more information about what I stand for I encourage people to visit my Chris Crow for City Council 2012 campaign Facebook page."

Marga Lacabe, a longtime resident of San Leandro, has written a blog in support of Crow on her site, San Leandro Talk.

What do you think? Was Crow off base in his remarks? Or are the criticisms of him unwarranted?