The new Miss America, Nina Davuluri, is a young Indian-American woman aspiring to be a doctor. She is intelligent, beautiful, giving and talented. Nina is everything Miss America should be, plus more. She is making history by being the first Indian-American woman to win the Miss America Scholarship Pageant. She is an inspiration to young women, although many closed-minded people don't feel that way.
The way many people are reacting to Davuluri's win is shocking. It is overshadowing the progress that the Miss America Organization has made. A lot of the negative feedback was expressed on Twitter with incorrect information regarding Davuluri and her background; one tweeter called Davuluri "Miss 7-Eleven." This stereotypical nonsense is appalling. Most of the hate-related tweets were shallow and the tweeters came across as misinformed of Davuluri's actual background.
These racist tweeters are upset that what they perceived as the "typical Miss America" was not the woman chosen to wear the crown. Davuluri, a Syracuse native, will not let the negativity get the best of her. She thinks of herself as "Miss Diversity" and knows she has many supporters. She understands she doesn't fit in many prejudice peoples' demographic of a tall, thin, blonde and she's okay with that. The most important thing is to ignore those who harbor hatred.
Sophomore Jonathan Albert finds the Miss America controversy to be "terrible and disgusting."
"I thought we lived in age of progression," said Albert.
It is not surprising that Twitter folks have used the Internet as a bashing ground. Tweets like "Miss New York is Indian, …this is America!" and "the anniversary of 9/11 was four days ago and she gets Miss America?" are unacceptable to most people, but reflects the closed-minded minority of citizens that live among us.
Senior Amanda Abbot feels very strongly about the subject.
"What happened with the Miss America Pageant is a perfect example of how our generation will jump at the chance to spew hate behind the safety of their keyboards."
It is true; social media has been used by many for negativity. Nina Davuluri is unfortunately a victim of this. Racism is slowly fading from America, but it is sure to stay there for a while. The Internet, with all its benefits, has also become a dark place for some to hide and express their racism and in essence continue to bully.
Citizens of the United States have to understand that patriotism means supporting all American citizens!
What is ironic is that these ignorant Twitter dwellers think they are being patriotic while they are attacking one of their fellow American citizens for not being what they perceive is American enough. This is 2013; we live in a diverse society where each culture and race enhances our country in some way. The hate is unacceptable to most of us.
It is unfortunate that after Davuluri performed so well at the pageant and truly earned her place as Miss America 2013 and the celebration was dampened with these comments. But with her spirit, I believe Nina Davuluri will not allow any negativity to take away from her moment in history.
kbiss@ramapo.edu
