(IAPA) benefit dinner, April 19, 2014 Davuluri, the first
Indian American to win the Miss America pageant (and the second Miss New York in a row), held the title of
Miss America 2014 from September 15, 2013, to September 14, 2014. In doing so, she followed in the footsteps of a previous Miss Syracuse/Miss New York,
Vanessa Williams, who (as
Miss America 1984) was the first
African American winner of the pageant.
NPR's Michael Martin commented on this aspect of her win by noting that "there were five Asian-Americans competing for the crown. That's the highest number in pageant history. Three of you were in the top five. Two of you were the finalists, and this in a contest where initially the requirements were that contestants be of good health and
of the white race." Drawing on her background in
Kuchipudi and
Bharatanatyam, Davuluri danced to the song "
Dhoom Taana" from the film
Om Shanti Om for her talent performance
. After being crowned Miss America, she said that she was told that she was "never going to win with a Bollywood talent so just go back to singing if you are serious about [winning]." She later described that part of the pageant as "very surreal."
Aftermath Shortly after she was crowned Miss America 2014, Davuluri became the target of
xenophobic and
racist commentary in American
social media. The news media compared this response to the backlash against
Vanessa Williams after she became Miss America 1984. Congresswoman
Grace Meng additionally linked Davuluri's experience to the
antisemitism that
Jewish American Bess Myerson faced as
Miss America 1945. Many of the comments demanded to know why Davuluri was chosen over the soldier,
Miss Kansas Theresa Vail, misidentified her as Muslim or Arab (equating both terms to the word "terrorist"), or associated her with groups such as
Al-Qaeda. They also noted
the pageant date relative to the September 11 anniversary, and generally expressed
anti-Indian sentiments and
anti-Arab sentiments. Davuluri later said that she was prepared for the social-media response because she faced a similar situation a few months earlier when she was crowned Miss New York. Some responded to the backlash in a show of solidarity with Davuluri. Students at
Duke University, and with
Yale University's Asian American Cultural Center and the South Asian Society, created videos and ran photo campaigns denouncing the social media attacks, while
Miss Kansas Theresa Vail blogged and gave interviews to discredit the comments about both herself and Davuluri. Actor and civil-rights activist
George Takei (the original
Hikaru Sulu in
Star Trek) posted a comment on Facebook stating that while he normally doesn't "care about Miss America ... the uproar over an Indian-American winning (whom many decried for being 'Arab') has me shaking my head. Please tell me I'm not alone in wondering whether we've learned anything at all." University of Michigan student Munmun Khan also stated that while she doesn't like beauty pageants, she hates "racism and bigotry even more ... Not only was [Davuluri] the first Indian Miss New York, but she is now also the first Indian Miss America. All cause for celebration." Finally, Immediate Past President,
Young Democrats of America, Atima Omara, argued that "a sexist, racist, xenophobic attack against one prominent woman of color is an attack against us all, and it shouldn't be tolerated just because we disdain that woman's choices. As an African-American woman with an ethnic name, I know the constant sting that comes from hearing how you are not American enough no matter how much you accomplish in the name of America." An editorial by the staff of
The Hindu highlighted a different narrative in India and the
Indian diaspora regarding her win and
colorism. The editorial suggested that rather than hold a pageant title in India, "the dark complexioned 24-year-old [Davuluri] would not have stood a chance ... had she been in India, far from entering a beauty contest, it is more likely that Ms Davuluri would have grown up hearing mostly disparaging remarks about the colour of her skin; she would have been — going by the storyline of most "fairness" cream advertisements — a person with low self-esteem and few friends." Similar remarks appeared in social media and in numerous editorials. == Speaker and advocate ==