by WorldTribune Staff, July 22, 2019
The winner of the 2019 Miss Michigan pageant says she was stripped of her title for what pageant officials said were “offensive, insensitive and inappropriate” social media posts.
Kathy Zhu, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, tweeted a screenshot of an email from Miss World America officials saying she was being dismissed from being a pageant participant.
“Miss World America’s State/National/Chief Director accused me of being racist, Islamaphobic, and insensitive,” Zhu tweeted. “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.”
Zhu told Yahoo Lifestyle that pageant officials knew about her social media posts before she became a contestant but claim they were misled because of her legal Chinese name.
“It’s not even about a crown or a pageant,” Zhu said. “It’s about the fact that people really do discriminate against people with conservative views.”
“Someone called me an Islamophobic for not wanting to put on a hijab. Someone called me a racist because I recognize that black people kill more blacks than police do,” Zhu tweeted on July 18. “Good luck to those who are as gullible as this.”
The email from the national director and the chief operating officer of the Miss World America organization said Zhu, a 20-year-old University of Michigan student, allegedly violated the contestant requirement of “being of good character” and not being “likely to bring into disrepute Miss World America or any person associated with the organization.”
In her response to Miss World America, Zhu wrote:
Do you what is “insensitive”? What’s “insensitive” is that women in the middle east are getting STONED TO DEATH for refusing to obey their husband’s orders or wear hijabs. A muslim woman tried to FORCIBLY put a hijab on my head without my permission. I tweeted about it on my social media, and it got the attention of the media. Almost everyone was supportive of me refusing to be put in that situation. are the people in MWA implying that they advocate for the punishment of women who refuse to wear a hijab?
The Hill noted that Zhu “is a political commentator known as @PoliticalKathy on Twitter and Facebook and an open supporter of President Trump. In 2018, she approached a Muslim Student Association booth and declined to wear a hijab, later tweeting that ‘there is a ‘try a hijab on’ booth at my college campus.”
Zhu, according to the Detroit Free Press, tweeted “So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?”
In a second incident, the Free Press reports, Zhu replied to a Twitter user in a comment saying: “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community before blaming others.”
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