Beauty Queen Claims She Was Stripped of Title Because She Was Pro-Trump, Refused To Wear a Hijab
A Michigan woman has called out the Miss World America pageant after it stripped her of her Miss Michigan title because of her conservative views.
Kathy Zhu, 20, who is the vice president of College Republicans at the University of Michigan and solidly behind President Donald Trump, blew the whistle on the pageant Thursday.
“Miss World America’s State/National/Chief Director accused me of being racist, Islamaphobic, and insensitive. They stripped me of my Miss Michigan title due to my refusal to try on a hijab in 2018, my tweet about black on black gun violence, and ‘insensitive’ statistical tweets,” she tweeted.
Miss World America’s State/National/Chief Director accused me of being racist, Islamaphobic, and insensitive.
They stripped me of my Miss Michigan title due to my refusal to try on a hijab in 2018, my tweet about black on black gun violence, and “insensitive” statistical tweets. pic.twitter.com/K1Btho0Pgq
— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) July 19, 2019
Zhu posted communications from Miss World America state director Laurie DeJack to Zhu claiming that Zhu’s social media account contained “offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content” in violation of pageant rules.
She cited a requirement that contestants be “of good character” and “not likely to bring disrepute” to the pageant.
“Therefore, and effective immediately, MWA does not recognize you as a participant of any sort in any capacity as it relates to any and all events of MWA,” DeJack said in an email Zhu shared.
“I’m more than happy a light got shined on it. For me, it wasn’t a big deal I got stripped of the title, it was more of how unfair it was for the whole process to have taken place. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she told the Detroit News.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvnpNWVHu0J/?utm_source=ig_embed
One of the issues pageant organizers had with Zhu was a 2017 tweet in which Zhu wrote, “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others.”
Zhu said the tweet was a response to claims that “all cops are bad cops, all cops were killing blacks.”
“It wasn’t anything about blaming blacks specifically for violence. I mean, every community has problems within it. I just shined light on that particular issue because of a subtweet of someone else,” she said.
Then there was the incident with a hijab. While a student at the University of Central Florida, she said an individual at a pro-Muslim booth tried to put a hijab on her head, and she forcibly resisted She later vented on Twitter about the incident.
Happily! https://t.co/ljBcyMnoz5
— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) July 19, 2019
After Zhu revealed what the pageant had done, she was at the center of a tweet-storm and held her own.
When the left calls you racist for using statistics to back up your claim, you know you’re on the right side of history.
— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) July 20, 2019
Didn’t know Asian Americans could be white nationalists! https://t.co/KP0rOh6Yk7
— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) July 19, 2019
Zhu said the pageant shot itself in the foot by acting without hearing from her first.
“I just think that they got a one-sided story,” Zhu said, adding that someone from her former home in Florida shared selected comments “that made it seem as if I was a bad person.”
“The whole point of them not wanting me to represent them is because they didn’t want bad publicity, but this gave them way more bad publicity because they removed someone that really didn’t do anything wrong,” she said.
The Western Journal has reached out to Miss World America for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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