By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington mayoral candidate Kevin Lower is trying to explain an online comment he made in 2014 that has caused a firestorm in the weeks before the election.

Lower said in a Facebook response “There are certainly many more opportunities on the African continent than on the North American.” That came in response to a post which said “If African-Americans really want to escape racism, it may be time to move to the land of the ancestors!”

PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Patti’s interview with Lower on WJBC.

Lower told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin and Patti Penn he didn’t intent for his comment to be racially charged.

“I think probably what this was something that come up across my timeline and I made a sarcastic remark to the fellow that made the post and that’s really all it intended to be,” Lower said.

The remark appeared on a page of the Facebook group Marcus Garvey Society, which has a series of remarks that an opposition group said are racist. Lower was one of two members of the Facebook group. Lower was invited to join and said he doesn’t closely monitor every group he follows online.

“I did not intend for this to be racially charged at all” Lower declared, adding at one time he had at one time considered moving to Nigeria.

“I have friends that have done that, there are opportunities, simply because they are an emerging economy,” Lower said. “So I think I was trying to basically slap the guy back without being mean about it.”

Mayor Tari Renner, Lower’s opponent in the April 4 election said public figures should hold themselves to a higher standard while commenting online.

“You’re not just an individual,” Renner said. “You have to think about the repercussions of what you’re saying and the deeper meaning of what might be communicated.”

Renner was caught in a controversy in 2015 for comments he made toward blogger Diane Benjamin.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].