Miss USA slammed for mocking non-English-speaking beauty queens
By: Tamar L.
Miss USA is being branded a “Mean Girl” for her comments during the Miss Universe pageant in Thailand about beauty queens who don’t speak English.
In an Instagram live video published Wednesday, Nebraska native Sarah Rose Summers was asked by Miss Colombia, Valeria Morales, what she thought of Miss Vietnam, H’Hen Nie — and responded by imitating her.
“She’s so cute and she pretends to know so much English and then you ask her a question after having a whole conversation with her and she goes [nods and smiles],” the 24-year-old said, giggling with Miss Australia, Francesca Hung.
Later in the video, Summers brought up Miss Cambodia, Rern Sinat, saying: “Miss Cambodia is here and doesn’t speak any English. Not a single person here speaks her language. Can you imagine?”
Hung pointed out how hard it must be for non-English-speaking contestants relying on Google Translate, to which Summers responded, “Poor Cambodia.”
She then turned to Morales and said, “You at least speak pretty good English,” with Hung chiming in, “And you have your Spanish.”
The videos were reposted on multiple Instagram accounts — and backlash was swift.
“Regina George is that you?” the popular fashion Instagram account DietPrada asked, referencing the wealthy, popular blond teen from the 2004 flick “Mean Girls.”
“This is basically what normalized xenophobia looks like,” DietPrada added. “If she’s trying to show empathy, the condescending, intolerant tone tells a different story. A reminder that you’re participating in a competition in a country/continent where English is NOT the primary language.”
One user commented on DietPrada’s post: “Did you hear? Miss USA doesn’t realize how racist and ignorant she is. That must be so isolating….oh wait…”
The outrage also spread to other social media outlets.
“@MissUniverse i wonder if you will still allow Miss USA, Columbia, and Australia to continue in the competition after their racist/ bigoted remarks toward fellow contestant Miss Cambodia. I can’t believe these ladies will be representing their countries!” tweeted @Il_Malandrino.
But others defended the beauty queen, saying she seemed to legitimately feel bad for her fellow contestants.
“It’s not a fun thing to be left out since there is a language barrier,” wrote Instagram user mitsukoewing in response to DietPrada’s post. “That’s all she pointed out. She wasn’t bashing her.”
Contestants from 94 countries are competing in the pageant this year, and the 67th Miss Universe will be crowned on Dec. 16.
