Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Miss unAmerica? Really?

I am no beauty pageant queen; queen, yes; into beauty pageants, no. Unless, and here’s where I go all shallow and hypocritical-like, it was a male beauty pageant. That’s a horse of a different color, you know.

So, not being into beauty pageants—and not even the scholarship contest they pretend to be these days though what winning a scholarship has to do with evening gowns and bikinis, I do not know—I didn’t watch the Miss America pageant last weekend.

But I did hear the news the next morning that Miss New York, Nina Davuluri won, and became the first women of Indian descent to win the tile, and I thought that was a cool thing. I mean, Miss America is usually blond and has big teeth and comes from one of those square states in the middle, so this was kinda cool.

Until the asshats and the racists took to — what else? — Twitter to spew their particular brand of ignorance mixed with stupidity topped with racism and served with a side of xenophobia.

Upon receiving her title and a crown and flowers because that screams scholarship, Davuluri, who is studying to be a doctor, said:
“Everything happens for a reason. If it’s meant to be it’s meant to be. It’s a win-win just to be in it.”
And maybe that’s true; maybe it happened because we needed a dose of diversity training in this country, if what some folks felt about her win is any indication of where some of our heads are located. See, not all Americans are happy with the win, and some of those who were unhappy, took to social media to whine and complain, like an asshat by the name of Luke Brasili:


I guess he's saying that because she’s a dark-skinned woman of Indian descent—who, by the way was born in Syracuse, a city in one of the fifty states which Little Luke failed to realize—that she had something to do with 9/11. Or that it’s a dishonor to those who died twelve years ago to have an Indian-American wear a crown.

Aly Walansky, another moron with too much time on her hands and access to media, tweeted this:


I guess you’re only American if you come from Kansas, so screw off you other 49 states, you don’t belong here.

Toss into the mix one Todd Starnes, a Fox Radio host—wow, color me shocked—who thinks that:


I guess had Davuluri shot a deer onstage with her own gun, that would make her more American.

Then we have someone who calls themselves Adam of Eve, who Tweeted his blatant racism proudly:


Um, Adam of Eve? You delusional tool? The Miss America pageant has nothing to do with India, and, frankly, neither does Davuluri; just like I don’t qualify to represent Germany or Ireland because that’s my heritage. If you wanted a true, full on American to represent this country, then maybe we should close the competition to anyone who isn’t Native American, the only really true Americans here, since everyone else, including you, comes from somewhere else.

But, not all the Tweeters are ignorant morons; some of them had some fun with it, and so, let’s share a couple of those from Grand Old Parody and Questlove Jenkins:


See, that’s the issue. Nina Davuluri is an American born in America to parents who came here from India. She is not un-American because of her skin color or her name or her ethnicity and heritage.

For me, she’s more American than those morns with Twitter accounts.

9 comments:

  1. racist h8 is alive and well, 50 years after MLK's "I have a dream" speech. sad. :(

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  2. Anonymous4:24 PM

    I would like to point out before you start bashing people, you do your own research.

    Aly posted that tweet when they booted Miss Kansas because she felt Miss Kansas didn't get picked because she wasn't a Barbie doll.

    Miss New York hadn't even won yet. The NY Post is a bunch of asshats who removed her tweet from their page because they realized they were going to get sued. I suggest you fix this before you're on that list.

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  3. Anonymous4:44 PM

    Anon -- How can Bob get sued for giving his opinion on someone giving an opinion on a public forum?

    Anyway... if someone wants to go cray cray on Miss America, they should chase the story where she allegedly called the reigning Miss America "Fat as fuck!"

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  4. Following your example this morning - following a depressing story with something good ---
    Chris March has a line of Halloween wigs at Target. Go Chris Go!
    http://tinyurl.com/lz79jug

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:01 PM

    I'm not defending the fox guy but I think his tweet was more about the woman who was actively serving and did all those things - including showing her body ink.

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  6. Anonymous8:51 PM

    First let me state - I have no problem with her being of Indian ancestry.

    I think in my case it comes from working in I.T. for so long. I've worked with people from that part of the world on several occasions. I find them for the most part to be hard working and pretty cool people.

    Hell I even learned that in India while English may be the official language, the number of different languages and regions is astounding. And the lore of their Gods is interesting too. My favorite is Ganesha.

    And I think that festival where they chalk everyone with all that color is too cool.

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  7. @Anon
    Um, read what dear Aly said, that only Miss Kansas can truly represent America.
    That's a dumbass thing to say, whether Miss America had been crowned yet or not.

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  8. Clearly Anonymous did not have the courage of his or her convictions.

    Having seen Miss Kansas on the Ridiculist she seemed like a good old girl to be Miss Kansas. But she was not beautiful and surely that is ONE of the attributes her fellow citizens would wish for in Miss America?

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  9. Also making the circuits is the fact that shes a Muslim! How un-American is that!!??!! When in fact the lovely Miss Davuluri Is a follower of the Hindu religion. Still...to mouth breathers I suppose its all the same. If its not xtian, tis noth'n.

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