Nina Davuluri, a 24 year old graduate of the University of Michigan, was crowned Miss America last night in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Davuluri was a finalist along with competitors from Oklahoma, Minnesota, California, and Florida. Davuluri was the first Miss New York of Indian descent earlier this year, and her victory last night makes her the first Miss America of Indian descent as well. In speaking about comments toward what it means to be the first Indian Miss America, Davuluri says that she is “…most excited to promote my platform.”
The internet has been buzzing with all kinds of news surrounding this year’s Miss America pageant, beginning with discussions surrounding Miss Kansas, her tattoos, and military service. Once Davuluri was announced as the winner last night, the internet exploded once again. However, the comments this time were not near as positive.
First, the internet discovered that Nina Davuluri used to be fat. Davuluri had admitted to being overweight in her past, and also admitted to battling with bulimia during college. Since then, however, she has worked with a professional trainer and is now down 60 pounds from her previous weight.
But that wouldn’t be all of the fat-saga. During this year’s Miss New York pageant, Davuluri was apparently overheard in a hotel room calling former Miss New York and last year’s Miss America, Mallory Hagan, “fat as f*ck.” This is definitely not behavior befitting a representative of Miss New York or Miss America, and thus an investigation was launched. Fortunately for Davuluri, the investigation reported that there was no validity to the story. Shortly after the results from the investigation came back as negative, Davuluri apologized to Hagan for the drama surrounding the incident.
Unfortunately for Davuluri, this would not be the last of the negative news. The world was treated to the delight of American patriotism and xenophobia this morning when the Twitter-sphere awoke. Apparently, there are many people in the US who don’t believe Davuluri should be Miss America. Why, you ask? It seems as if many people believe the title of Miss America is available for only those who are “white” and not “foreign”. Just check out these Hall of Fame tweets:
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In a year which saw the 50th anniversary of the “I Have a Dream Speech”, during which we had a black president, the amount of racism from this tweets is fairly hard to believe. Perhaps the most staggering aspect of these tweets, though, are the ones that associate Miss America with terrorism, 9/11, or al-Qaeda. It’s bad enough to be a racist; it is doubly bad to be an ignorant racist. Davuluri is from India, which is located just south of Nepal, Tibet, and China. It is to the southeast of Pakistan, which touches Afghanistan – making it quite a ways from the base of al-Qaeda and even further from the events which transpired on 9/11. The reaction from the Twitter-verse just goes to show why it is so important that we have a Miss America that is not white. America will never rid itself of its racists tendencies unless it is confronted with how little progress we have made on that front daily. Unfortunately, those with the worst ideas or opinions are often the ones who shout the loudest. Let’s hope we hear some response from those defending Davuluri soon.
To end on a happier note, here is a video of Davuluri that is currently making its rounds around the internet, in which she fails to recognize that she is the person being called on stage to perform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzJa1afwDT8#t=24
Image via YouTube