The recent 2014 Miss America Pageant
Contest became a hot topic in the online discussion forum due to the winner who
was crowned is an Indian American. Critics from the audience are not about
blaming on her talents or her appearance, but they are critiquing her skin
color and her ethnic background. Because of her skin color and ethnic
background, she has been described as a “terrorist”. Personally, I think this
is an extreme act of racism because of the 911 terrorist attacks. A question always come across my mind is “what
if those people in the terrorist attack are not from the Middle Eastern
Countries, will people now still act the same if those people come from another
race?”. Some people have a strong reaction on this contest because they believe
that Miss America should be a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, which
is what they considered Miss American. In our reading, Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components,
one of the concepts that came up is automatic information processing. This
concept can be greatly connected with the whole criticism of the winner in Miss
America Pageant 2014 because the people in America already have a general visualization
of what a typical Miss America should be. In terms of automatic information
processing, people's mind automatically tells them what a
white American is; therefore, a lot of people are against the result. However, some people strongly support Nina Davuluri as 2014 Miss America winner.
This goes back to what we were discussing in class about people posting racist/prejudice things just for the sake of getting attention even if it’s negative. Those people do it on purpose but the sad part is that people actually do make the association between Arabs and Indians purely based on appearance. It almost reminds me of this time I was watching the comedy variety show Mind of Mencia, where he was talking about how violence against those of Indian origin had risen in certain parts of the country since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He went on to make a joke about the distinction between Arabs and Indians, but the heart of the matter is that he addressed this narrow-minded view of how Americans perceive those of middle-eastern/Indian origins. Then there are just those that know what the difference and instead poke fun at Miss America with stereotypes. It really is a sad situation but the internet has given voice to literally everyone that owns a computer and it allows them to say whatever they want without any real consequence to them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on how internet is a space for people to speak out their voice publicly, which also reminds me of USA history on Freedom of Speech. However, what if internet didn’t exist, would people still have more chances of raising their voice? I think the stereotypical issue that people have between the distinction on Arabs and Indians will not go away mainly because of the facial appearance and also because of the tragic event 911. Since it is an unforgettable tragic event, it already engraved into the American people’s heard and memory. I don’t think racism will disappear, but hopefully it will change people’s perspective as time goes on.
DeleteTo answer your question if another race attacked the Twin Towers on 9/11, I do think people will be hostile towards them and often be racist to them. Then it makes me question what if it was a white person what would happen then? Would they say that the person had a mental illness and would people start being racist towards those who looked like that person? It was unfair to that girl who won the contest. She was beautiful first of all and see seemed like she deserved to win even though I did not watch it. Secondly, I think it was necessary that she won to show that we should be past being racists towards people of middle-eastern decent and start accepting people of all different races.
ReplyDeleteI think if the white was the one who attacked the Twin Towers, the outcome would be different in terms of discrimination. I agree with you that it is unfair to the girl who won the contest, but some people will considered her as a humiliating the American's society. Some people even question what does it mean to be "American", even when America is a very diverse nation.
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