Miss Michigan Stripped Of Title Over Racist Social Media Posts

Miss Michigan Kathy Zhu has been stripped of her title over racist social media posts. The 20-year-old, who is a Donald Trump supporter, model and activist, has over 70,000 followers on Instagram and Twitter.

Zhu, known for sparking controversies such as "Try a Hijab," rose to fame after winning the 2019 Miss Indiana and Michigan World America titles. However, she has now been stripped of the Miss Michigan title after her tweet about black gun violence and other insensitive posts. Reports highlight the University of Michigan student’s offending tweets, such as the one that said: “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your community first before blaming others.”

Zhu was born in China and immigrated to the U.S. when she was five.

On her Twitter page Zhu also shared a screenshot of an email from Laurie DeJack, Miss World America Michigan state director, highlighting that she had been accused of being racist, Islamophobic and insenstive.

“It has been brought to the attention of Miss World America that your social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content, and in violation of MWA’s Rules and Conditions, specifically the contestant requirement of ‘being of good character and whose background is not likely to bring into disrepute Miss World America or any person associated with the organization,” DeJack wrote in the email.

“Therefore, and effective immediately, MWA does not recognize you as a participant of any sort or in any capacity as it relates to any and all events of MWA. Furthermore, let this communication serve as an official notice to remove any mention of yourself as a participant in MWA from all social media platforms,” she said.

In her reply email, Zhu argued that statistics and facts are not always pleasant. “It's disgusting how you would rather lie to the public’s face than be supportive of someone that is trying to make a difference by talking about subjects that no one dares to say,” she wrote.

In regards to the hijab incident, Zhu said a Muslim woman tried to forcibly put a hijab on her head without her permission. She also pointed out that women in the Middle East are being stoned to death for refusing to wear hijabs. “Are the people in MWA implying that they advocate for the punishment of women who refuse to wear hijab,” Zhu questioned.

Conservatives have come out in support of the beauty queen, calling MWA's response as "unbelievable." Lauren Chen, BlazeTV host, wrote that the fact these pageant people find her views offensive speaks more about their own bigotry than anything else. John Hawkins, a podcaster, also came out in Zhu’s support saying that a conservative woman isn’t even allowed to enter a beauty pageant anymore without holding politically correct opinions.