Monday 16 September 2013

Crowning of New Miss America Prompts Racist Tweets Because of Her Heritage



Miss New York Nina Davuluri is the Miss America 2014

(Via Today) – The crowning of the latest Miss America has stirred up the ugly side of social media.

Miss New York, Syracuse native Nina Davuluri, won the crown Sunday night, and as soon as she did, Twitter lit up with comments suggesting she was an Arab, a foreigner, and a terrorist with ties to Al Qaeda.

Why the hate?

Davuluri, who aspires to be a doctor like her father, is the first Miss America whose family comes from India. Her win also happens to be the second consecutive victory for New York, but that got lost in tweets by people who couldn’t look past her skin-deep beauty.

“Congratulations Al-Qaeda. Our Miss America is one of you,” tweeted “De La Rutherford,” or @Blayne_MkltRain, who has since pulled down the full Twitter profile.

Many individuals who ranted over the Miss America decision pulled down their Twitter pages after media sites posted their comments. Luke Brasili pulled down his profile after he tried to connect Davuluri’s win with the September 11 anniversary.

“9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets Miss America?” he tweeted in a post @LukeBrasili.

But Nick Puzzo kept his site up, using it to defend himself against people who reacted angrily to him tweeting, “So miss america is a terrorist.”



Meanwhile, Todd Starnes, host of Fox News & Commentary, blamed the win on a “politically correct” panel of judges, according to a series of tweets.

“The liberal Miss America judges won’t say this but Miss Kansas lost because she actually represented American values,” he said in one post.

Davulari, for her part, embraced her heritage in the talent portion of the Miss America competition. She performed an Indian dance fused with Bollywood moves. After she won her crown, she dismissed the online remarks disparaging her heritage.

“I have to rise above that,” she said, according to the AP. “I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.” Read/learn MORE at Today.

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