If I filed blog posts like I filed real files, I’d file this blog post in my tabbed manila folder labeled ‘NS;LX’ which stands for ‘Not Surprised; Low Expectations.’
Even if I didn’t flinch when I heard about all the idiotic tweets about our new Miss America, it’s still worth mentioning how ridiculously low the level of ignorance (like, really ignorant) that was on display when Indian-American Nina Davuluri won the 2014 title.
Before we get into it, Davuluri was born in New York, lived in Oklahoma for six years, then moved to Michigan where she went to the University of Michigan (woop woop). She eventually ended up back in New York where she was named Miss New York.
Also, Indians are not Arabs. That wasn’t Egyptian dancing. She’s not a terrorist, nor did she have anything to do with 9/11. Now that you are armed with that information, let’s get to the white nativism and name-calling:
I’m sure this makes Jack Dorsey really proud. That’s not sarcasm.
Anywayzzz all this boils down to Davuluri not looking Caucasian enough. Nina’s skin is dark because of her Indian descent, but she was born and raised in the United States – which unfortunately means to a large swath of people that Davuluri can’t possibly be American.
Now if she was a Caucasian-looking woman that was born and raised in India and had won the title, there wouldn’t have been more than a couple tweeps about her not being American enough. There certainly would have been less 9/11 and 7-11 references – at least we can agree on that.
And that’s how a large part of America processes race.
