CA mayor’s racist remarks paint Iraqi immigrants as drug dealers and moochers

Listening to the audio the El Cajon mayor sounds like he had too much alcohol.

While a California mayor and his city defend themselves against accusations of racism after his remarks criticizing Chaldean Catholic immigrants from Iraq were published in a national magazine, audio obtained exclusively by The Raw Story reveals him also disparaging his town’s Mexican-American community and “Black Africans” in an interview replete with stereotype-driven opinions.

During an interview with Arun Gupta for The Progressive magazine published in May 2013, El Cajon Mayor Mark Lewis can be heard saying the city has had “a terrible time” dealing with some Chaldean business owners because they will allegedly not serve women.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve told them, if you’re open for business, you have to serve female customers as well,” Lewis told the Progressive, after explaining that, “In our society the female is the same as the male. They haven’t got that through their heads yet.”

Mayor Pro Tem Bill Wells criticized Wells’ remarks in a phone interview with KPBS-TV aired Tuesday, saying that the city does not support institutionalized racism, citing the presence of two Chaldeans, including one woman, on the city’s planning committee, while also criticizing Lewis.

“It’s an insensitive remark,” Wells told KPBS. “If he said something like that, he should apologize.”

But Gupta told Raw Story via email that he felt Wells and city officials were playing damage control in the wake of Lewis’ remarks.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/23/caught-on-tape-ca-mayors-racist-remarks-paint-iraqi-immigrants-as-drug-dealers-and-moochers/