I woke up this morning to read that
Miss New York, an Indian-American woman, was just last night crowned Miss
America in Atlantic City. At first, I didn’t really understand what the big
whoop was about, but as I saw the incoming rants and articles, it dawned on me
that it was a big deal because apparently more than a “few” folks had taken to
Twitter to bash her victory. Because it’s not okay for an “Arab” to win Miss
America. Because “I’m not a racist or anything, but this is America.” And also because it’s a “nice slap in the face to the people of 9/11.” Then there were supremely
clever digs like: “Miss Al-Qaeda” or “Miss 7-11.” Eyeroll.
Now I
understand that comments like these come from a place of supreme ignorance, but
just in case any of your friends feel like trying on their dunce hats for a
day, I’m going to spit some hot fire that you can use to shut them down.
Dónde está India? That’s right. No está.
First,
India is not an Arab country. You cannot call Indians, Arab. India is a South
Asian country, which means, if you want to start throwing out monikers while
also being correct, you should have called her an Asian. So now the question
that begs is: “Can an Asian win Miss America?” (Totally rhetorical. Yes, she
can. In fact, two of the other finalists were Asian-American.)
Second,
your identity as an American naturally recalls the fact that your forefathers
came to this country many, many years ago—as religious refugees—from countries
that oppressed them. Now, this country was not a tabula rasa. There were people
already here. So if you wanna play the “we were here first” or “we’ve been here
longer than you” game, you should move over. Because I’m pretty sure the land on
which your house is currently situated at one point rightfully belonged to a
Native American tribe. At the end of the day, all of us are immigrants. The
only difference is that some of us are further removed from our initial
immigrant ancestors than Nina Davuluri, whose parents are first-generation
immigrants.
Third,
using the word “America” to invoke some sort of Anglo-Saxon image of what you
think your neighbor looks like is just willful blindness at this point. The
2010 census tells us that now more than ever, the American population is a
hodge-podge. We are the picture of diversity, with 14% of our population
reporting as black, 6% as Asian, and 7% as another race altogether. The
percentage of foreign-born people in our country is higher now than it has been
since the 1920s.
Fourth, the
definition of beauty is ever-expanding. The Miss Universe Organization last
year officially amended its rules to allow transgender individuals to
compete—giving the green light to Canadian contestant Jenna Talackova, who was
born a man but had undergone extensive sex-change surgery. The significance of
these pageants, at least in symbolism, is to crown a contestant who represents
everything that is good about America. You know, things like diversity, and
equal rights and opportunities for all people, regardless of their skin color,
sexual orientation, or gender.
Get it? American supremacy. Lolz.
So imagine
my chagrin at waking up to find that some people just haven’t gotten the memo.
The Miss America news for me also came right on the heels of watching Julie
Chen on The Talk explain that she had
to undergo eye surgery to make her eyes seem less Asian, and more “Western” and
alert, in order for her television career to launch. Apparently the Miss
America winner herself had also battled bulimia and hit the gym hardcore to
become this vision of perfection that we praise today—5’2’’ and 117 lbs.
Perhaps we
can’t all agree on the perfect vision of outer beauty, but we should agree that
ugly and offensive name-calling, judgment, ignorance, intolerance and outright
hatred will not even get you on the short list for the Toddlers and Tiaras pageants.
– Helena B.
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