Former Miss America claims pageant was racist to her in seating arrangement

Ericka Dunlap is the 2004 winner of the Miss America beauty pageant. She is also the first black woman to win the Miss Florida beauty pageant. Dunlap is demanding an apology from the pageant organization over an incident she claims happened last week at the Miss America competition.

According to TMZ, Dunlap says she was told to leave a seat in the audience at last week’s pageant because she is black. She described the incident in comments she told TMZ that quoted:

 “I was sitting there on the aisle, and during the first commercial break during top 15 announcement, a producer came up to me and said, ‘Get out of that seat. I need the seat. I don’t give a f**k who you are. Get out of the f**king seat.’” (TMZ.com)

Because of the white producer’s tone of voice, Dunlap says she refused to leave the seat. Dunlap continued:

“I was spoken to as if I didn’t matter. If I were any other Miss America, I would have never been spoken to like that. But I’m the only black one who comes back.” (TMZ.com)

Dunlap says the rude producer called over one of his assistants who helped him physically remove her from the seat and place her in another seat in the audience. Dunlap does not plan to sue the pageant, However, she is demanding an apology. The Miss America organization responded to Dunlap’s accusations calling them “nonsense.” A representative for the organization quoted:

During the night of the telecast, Ericka was unhappy with her seat, and she chose to move to a camera blocked seat that was reserved for the parents of our contestants. At the top of the show, the stage manager asked her to move to seat the contestant’s parents, and she refused to move. She subsequently was offered a better seat, however she refused it. It was strictly a television production issue.” (TMZ.com

Naturally Moi

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