By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
(Update: This story has been updated to include the mayor’s apology)
A bride says she spent part of her wedding day in tears after hearing comments from the mayor which she considered racist.
Vivian Tsai told AsAmNews in English that she had scheduled to be married at Cheviot City Hall in Ohio in a ceremony officiated by Mayor Samuel Keller.
When she and her wedding party arrived at 11 for the ceremony, she says they were told the service had been rescheduled to 3 p.m. that day. A city official said she had been calling her everyday for a week without success.
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The number the city had, as confirmed by the mayor to AsAmNews, was the same one used by this reporter to contact Tsai. The bride told AsAmnews she did not have any missed calls or messages from the city during that time and questions whether anyone tried to contact her in advance.
The wedding party asked to speak to the mayor after being informed of the delay. The mayor said he explained to the wedding party once again that his staff had unsuccessfully tried to reach Tsai.
This is where the stories diverge. Tsai told AsAmNews she heard Skeller say “It’s not my fault if she can’t understand English messages.”
“Being Asian myself and seeing a mayor making a racist comment on someone’s big day, I take it very personally,” said Rufan Li who said she heard the comment. “I feel sad for my friend because her special day is ruined. I also feel as a city, we still have a long way to go to make Cincinnati a welcoming place for immigrants.”
The mayor denies making the comment. He told AsAmNews he only asked if the Bride and groom spoke English.
“I asked is it possible that she (the bride) got the messages but did not understand them? I asked does she speak English? In the form of a question,” Skeller said to AsAmNews.
He said during his entire conversation with the wedding party, Tsai did not say a word. Tsai said she chose to let her friends do the talking for her.
“It is a wedding day. We had everything set up, reception and everything,” said Tsai. “It’s just not acceptable he rearrange our wedding without letting us know. In our culture, we really need to get married before noon. We have a lunar calendar. For these big things, when your getting married. For our culture, and my parents, its really a big deal. The next day is a bad day to get married for the Year of the Pig and I was born in the Year of the Pig.”
Tsai said a meeting between her and the mayor was set up by the co-chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. Skeller is a Democrat.
“I hope he is going to apologize,” Tsai said before the meeting. I hope he is understanding that what he said is really racist. He rescheduled our wedding without letting us know and I feel that is really disrespectful. It could be the staff that made a mistake, but it also his mistake because he didn’t make sure his staff did the right thing.”
Tsai contacted AsAmNews this afternoon to inform us that Skeller did apologize. The mayor admitted there may have been confusion with her phone number because the area code she uses is one digit off from Chivelot’s area code-413 instead of 513.
“Overall, we think his apology is acceptable,” she said. “I could feel he realized how poorly he managed the situation and how offensive his comment was after he got contacted by you and other reporters as he mentioned to us that our friends from social media are working hard on it.”
She said Skeller emphasized he has taught his staff the importance of diversity and respecting cultural differences for years.
Tsai is originally from Taiwan and is a research assistant at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She has 2 Master’s degrees and is a part-time MBA student at Xavier University. She ultimately found someone else to marry her that day and the city has refunded her the fees she paid.
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RE: Mayor accused of Making Racist Comment about Taiwanese Bride on her Wedding Day. He apologizes: Honestly, I’m giving the mayor the benefit of the doubt. Of all the things to cry about, being mistaken for a non-English speaker isn’t one of them. It seems to me Tsai is out to make trouble. It’s unlikely the city would postpone their marriage out of malice. The whole thing reads like a big misunderstanding.
RE: Mayor Accused of Making Racist Comment about Taiwanese Bride on her Wedding Day. He Apologizes: The problem isn’t that her wedding day was rearranged, the problem was the mayor’s racist retort “It’s not my fault if she can’t understand English messages.”
Supposedly he apologized, but where’s the apology? He denied his racist remark, and claimed there was confusion because his office was dialing the wrong area code.
Maybe he should learn how to f*cking use a phone.