A model who supports President Donald Trump had her beauty queen crown removed after “inappropriate” past social media posts were discovered.
Kathy Zhu, a Chinese immigrant, believes her Miss Michigan World America title was stripped because of her conservative beliefs. The former beauty pageant winner has a large social media following with almost 90,000 followers on Twitter (76,100) and Instagram (13,300) combined.
Miss World America (MWA) sent an email to Zhu on Thursday explaining that her past social media posts violated its rules and conditions of “being a good character and whose background is not likely to bring into disrepute Miss World America or any person associated with the organization.”
Zhu posted the email and her reaction to it on Twitter.
“Miss World America’s State/National/Chief Director accused me of being racist, Islamaphobic, and insensitive. 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,” she said.
https://twitter.com/PoliticalKathy/status/1152044590645616640
The former pageant winner had two 2018 social media posts come under question.
In 2018, when she was a Central Florida University freshman, Zhu approached the Muslim Student Association booth celebrating World Hijab Day and declined the wear a hijab. After her interaction with the student association, she tweeted about it.
“There is a ‘try a hijab on’ booth at my college campus. 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?”
The second “controversial” social media post happened when she replied to a tweet and said: “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community before blaming others.”
In a response email to MWA, the current University of Michigan student questioned if the company knew what “insensitive” meant. Also, Zhu addressed the Central Florida incident by saying the Muslim women tried to “forcibly” put the Hijab on her head. She told the company that “stats and facts are not always pleasant.”
Furthermore, she questioned the company’s motive in repealing her crown.
“To hurt, embarrass, and strip the title of a 20 year old woman studying political science all because ONE PERSON’S COMPLAINT not only shows how gullible you are to photo-shopped tweets… but also shows you have no dignity to do what is right.”
Zhu thanked people for their “overwhelming support” and has not decided if she will take any legal action.
https://twitter.com/PoliticalKathy/status/1152302800073887745
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Battleground State News. Follow Zachery on Twitter.
Photos by Kathy Zhu.
