Beauty Queen Kathy Zhu Defends Herself on CNN After Being Stripped of Her Title for ‘Offensive’ Tweets
CNN’s
Alisyn Camerota held a fascinating interview on Monday with a Michigan beauty queen who recently lost her title in light of resurfaced comments she made about Muslims and Black people.
Kathy Zhu, winner of the Miss Michigan 2019 pageant, drew headlines recently when Miss World America (MWA) informed her that her social media accounts “contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content” in violation of the organization’s requirement for participants to be of “good character.”
While her posts have been deleted,
ABC News reports that one of Zhu’s offending tweets said “Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others,” and another one said “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?”
Last week, Zhu posted the email she received from the MWA on Twitter. She also included her response saying her tweets were based on “statistics and facts,” that the real outrage is the oppression of Muslim women, and she is also claiming to be discriminated against for her conservative views.
When Zhu joined Camerota to talk about all of this, she said that her tweets were taken out of context and reiterated that “everything I posted was statistics and opinions.” As Camerota brought up Zhu’s “black deaths” comments, the beauty queen said her tweet was in response to someone who was making a blanket statement about how cops are “bad people” who kill African Americans.
“This is all backed up by statistics and facts,” said Zhu. “I think it’s really awful how the Left thinks statistics and facts are racist. I don’t think anything I said was remotely wrong, I stand by every tweet that I post.”
“Why would you focus on blacks causing black deaths when the majority of white deaths are caused by white people?” Camerota asked. “The pageant wasn’t calling you racist, they were saying ‘insensitive and offensive content.’ You’re the person that focused on that statistic. That’s the statistic you decided to highlight instead of police excessive force.”
Zhu continued to stand by her argument that her words were taken out of context, so when Camerota moved on to her remarks about hijabs, she asked Zhu “you don’t see how that could be offensive?” Zhu answered by recalling the story behind that tweet, also saying “it’s really rude, I feel…to wear their sacred garment on someone who isn’t a Muslim themselves. I wouldn’t want to put a Catholic rosary on someone who isn’t a Catholic.”
“But that’s not what you said,” Camerota countered. “You said it wasn’t that you felt badly for them, that you weren’t Muslim, it’s that you said, ‘are you just trying to get women used to be oppressed under Islam.'”
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