I am still on cloud nine from the triple crown win of Miss America, Miss USA, and Miss Teen USA and wanted to chime in on the conversation.
#WhataTimeToBeAlive
I loved seeing women using hashtag #whatatimetobealive! It really warmed my soul. I am all about women empowerment, and certainly, I get excited when any woman wins, but I am especially excited when beauty on a public stage looks just like the little girls in my home.
I shared already that I do talk to my girls about beauty, and clearly, I share with them that outward beauty is not what I value most. Part of the wins of Nia Franklin, Cheslie Kryst, and Kaliegh Garris that make me so proud is the incredible and accomplished women they are.
Black Beauty
I literally remember my first black Barbie doll. Wait!!! hear me… I don’t mean I remember the first black Barbie that I bought.. I mean the first black Barbie created! I remember her! I remember how excited I was to comb her hair and I just stared at her for hours. Now my daughters can see examples of brown beauty all around them, in their dolls… in their mirrors… and in their beauty queens.
The Miss USA Pageant
In my house when Miss America, Miss USA, or Miss Universe comes on… my husband knows that it’s super bowl Sunday for me. My girls sometimes watch with me, and we cheer and root as if it were the playoffs. And it IS the playoffs for me! The championship game to be exact! My daughter was rooting for New Mexico, and I was rooting for California (because that’s where I live) Oklahoma because some of my favorite Miss USA’s have come from Oklahoma, and North Carolina (because I follow her beauty Blog and I remember congratulating her on Instagram when she won her state title.)
When North Caroline was in the final two I literally thought there is no way they will crown two curly haired black girls so New Mexico is going to win! I literally thought that. I literally felt like there was going to be a “black quota” like in so many other institutions. I seriously and subconsciously believed that even if a black woman was qualified, and beautiful and…. QUALIFIED! That if they already had enough of us (An African Ameican teen with curly hair had won Miss Teen USA the night before), she wouldn’t get the job. When I say this out loud it makes me sad. Oh, but WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE! You guys they chose her! Not because of affirmative action, not because they needed a token black girl, not because of the color of her skin. But because she was QUALIFIED!
Not there yet!
Back to the hashtag thing (#whatatimetobealive) I am proud to be an African American woman in the United States! Culturally we have come a long way, and we are thriving. (mommination blog post). I love that I can walk into Target and find entire aisles of hair products catered to our hair, and dolls that look like us!
But as a Nation, we still have a long way to go. We have yet to have an Asain American winner for Miss USA. It’s been in the last decade that we welcomed our first Asain American woman as a Mis America.
I read many of the comments on the Miss USA Instagram, and many women commented that the “triple crown win” should not be about race. But until you have NOT had the sweet taste of validation for conventional America to announce that someone who looks like you… could be the prettiest and most intelligent women in America! You will never fully understand what it does for your confidence that glorious moment when it happens. And for it to happen three times in one year! Right now…YOU- CAN’T – TELL – ME – NOTHING (<- slang for I am over the moon!) (hair flip and pageant wave!)
xo- Chantea
