24
July
2019

Miss Michigan 2019 Kathy Zhu stripped of the title over offensive political tweet

24 Jul 2019 | Gayatri Poswal

Miss World America organization recently stripped Kathy Zhu of her Miss Michigan 2019 crown as she posted political views on twitter which were found offensive by the pageant's organizers, to which the beauty tweeted, “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."

Kathy Zhu, a 20-year-old political science student and president of College Republicans at the University of Michigan is a well-known conservative political commentator and online figure, amassing approximately 80,000 followers in her Instagram and Twitter accounts combined. She is a supporter of President Donald Trump.

Kathy is now going disclosing the emails and texts she exchanged with officials from Miss World America and spoke with Fox News on Monday about the negative and positive responses she has received.

 

Miss Michigan 2019 Kathy Zhu stripped of the title over offensive political tweet

 

Despite the apparent support from her fellows, the tweets Zhu claims caused Miss World America to dissociate with her have caused a backlash on social media. Zhu still defends the two now-deleted tweets that she blames for her firing.

The first incident in which Zhu went up to a Muslim Student Association booth celebrating World Hijab Day and declined to wear a hijab when prompted and for this she tweeted, “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?"

To which Zhu clarified and said, "I said that it was (getting women used to) being oppressed because there are so many women in Middle Eastern countries that are being punished and stoned for refusing to wear a hijab", also she added, "Nobody is talking about that in the West because all they see is everyone being at peace, but that is the beauty of America."

The second is a reply to another user in which Zhu wrote, “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community before blaming others.” To which Zhu replied that it is applicable over all the communities and if still there’s a problem then one should try to resolve it in their own community before attacking others. She neither wrote anything against racism nor she intended to.

Zhu also said that Miss World America Organization should be more specific and clearly define what ‘insensitive’ exactly means, as according to her, whatever she posted was not insensitive.