It is a dream come true for any girl to become Miss America and for 24-year old Indian American Nina Davuluri, it is more so. The girl from Vijaywada beat Miss California, Crystal Lee and the other top five finalists, Miss Minnesota, Rebecca Yeh; Miss Florida, Myrrhanda Jones, and Miss Oklahoma, Kelsey Griswold to win the coveted title on September 15.
This year’s contest has been the most diverse yet with contestants like an army sergeant with tattoos, another who was born missing half her arm and another with a bedazzled knee brace participating in the contest to name a few.
But among all the adulation and diversity talk, the Indian beauty who dreams of becoming a doctor one day came in for a lot of racism following her win. Microblogging site Twitter was filled with anti-India sentiments which misidentified her as a Muslim or Arab.
Tweets ranged from comparing her to a terrorist to dissing her as not being an American. A user with the handle @emi_adkins tweeted, “It’s called Miss America. Get outta here New York you look like a terrorist.” While another user tweeted “9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets miss America?”, another wrote, “nice slap in the face to the people of 9-11 how pathetic #missamerica”. Some even commented on her origin saying “If you’re #Miss America you should have to be American.” Miss America Nina Davuluri has chosen to ignore all of this saying “I have to rise above that. I always viewed myself as first and foremost American.”
Amid all this debate, INN got talking to youngsters in the city and asked them their opinion on the issue. When asked whether they would consider going to the United States for further studies or work related opportunities even after this kind of backlash, the opinion seems to be mixed.
“Yes, I will go to USA because its only a handful of people who engage in such mindless activities. Its not right to judge the entire counrty on the basis of what a handful of people say,” feels Reshma Pabani, a counsellor at St. Anns college. She also believes that racial discrimination is there everywhere and when there are several racial minorities residing in the country, discrimination is bound to happen. “Besides the world itself is discriminatory, it’s not just America,” adds Reshma.
Ramya Palakurthy, a student at EFLU agrees with Reshma and says, “This sort of thing will not deter me from pursuing my goals or prevent me from going to the USA. We cant dwell on such negativity. Racism is not restricted to America. It is everywhere in the West. commenting on the Miss America debacle, she adds, “As for Nina Davuluri, she has achieved a great thing and should not focus on these kind of comments. People who indulge in such talks are idiots.”
Then there are those who point out that before attacking Miss America, they should look at the administrative setup of the country. “It is extremely foolish that one would associate and accuse someone of criminal intentions just for being of a different nationality. Especially considering that there already is an Indian executive in the American presidential office,” points out Vidya Palaparthi,mass communication student at Osmania University. She also commented that believing that terror attacks come only from the Middle East is not right.”Its not like the caucasian race is not capbale of terrorism," she adds.
