On Monday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” Klavan discusses Kathy Zhu losing her crown as Miss Michigan. Zhu claims it was because of her pro-Trump activism on social media. Video and partial transcript below:
Kathy Zhu was crowned Miss Michigan by the Miss World America organization and she has been stripped of her title now. Whatever your opinion is of beauty contests, whether you like them, whether you don’t, whether they’re interesting to you or not, girls who go into beauty contests work extraordinarily hard.
Obviously, it’s a big test. They have to look perfect; they have to act perfectly and they have to walk perfectly; they have to stay in shape. It is a lot of work. So, when you take away somebody’s crown, you’re doing a big thing. Yet, it’s the kind of thing it would be news for a day, and it will disappear. But, in her life, this is a big deal, that she is stripped of something that she earned. Why was she stripped of it? Well, first of all, she’s a conservative activist. She’s a University of Michigan senior and the social media director for the national group Chinese Americans for Trump. She shared on social media an email she had received on Thursday, when she was told that she could no longer be Miss Michigan, because of some tweets she sent out.
For instance, she tweeted, “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems with your own community first before blaming others.” Here’s another one, “There’s 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.”
These are perfectly valid opinions. You may disagree, you may not. I mean, it is true that black violence against other blacks does account for more deaths than white violence against blacks. It is true also, that a hijab is a religious thing. When you say try on a hijab, you’re not just saying, “Oh, here’s a fashion accessory,” you are communicating an entire philosophy, which if women find oppressive you know that’s not a head-scratcher for me. But still, I can see you disagree, but she loses her crown for this. She loses her crown for speaking her opinion. Here’s her response to the people who supported her.
Kathy Zhu: Hey everyone this is Kathy Zhu; I just want to say thank you so much for all your support. It’s been a heck of a two days, honestly. Yesterday I was crying when I first saw the messages and emails from the organization, but today’s a new day, and today was amazing, honestly. I’m so glad this story got brought into the public eye and the media because this is so much bigger than pageantry. This is about, you know, an organization that discriminates against people with different opinions, calling people racist even when they’re not. Just literal attacks like those, really, really diminishes the value and the truth of the word ‘racism’. So, you know, there shouldn’t just be diversity of skin color, there should be diversity of thought, of mindset, of political affiliation. I’m so glad to be able to be the voice for this right now and I hope that other pageant organizations could really learn from this story and the situation to not discriminate others based on opinions. So, don’t worry, I’ll still stand firm, stand my ground. I’m still going to continue fighting for what I believe in. So yeah, thank you guys so much for the support once again. See you later.
Well, shame on them, right? I mean it is a beautiful girl, obviously extremely intelligent, very articulate, who knows exactly what she’s saying. Plus, she has the courage of her conviction, she has integrity. They didn’t even give her a chance apparently, didn’t give her chance to defend herself, but she could have come out and cry, “Oh I’m so sorry.” She could have tried to get back in their good graces. Instead, she stood firm. She has a picture of herself wearing the “Make America Great Again” MAGA hat. That actually is the kind of woman who should be winning contests, that’s an American woman, that is somebody where we all sit back and say “Yes, that’s the kind of woman we want America to be made up of.” People who stand for what they stand for. She’s not attacking anybody, she’s not “milkshaking” anybody, she’s not throwing anything at anyone. She’s simply expressing her opinions; you don’t like them, disagree. It’s an amazing thing how the Left has managed to make a disagreement a matter of hostility.
I mean, look, I disagree with a lot of my friends, a lot of people I love. I disagree with them, we argue sometimes, even our voices go up when we argue, but it never changes anything. I remember once, that Ben and I got into a political argument and I went home and the “god-king,” Jeremy, called me and said, “The people who are watching that argument were afraid that you guys were angry,” and I said, “Angry? I’m not angry at all.” We were just passionate about what we were talking about and debating.
That’s part of being an American, it’s part of being free, it’s one of the joys of life to debate people of goodwill and things that you disagree with. I’m at this very moment have been talking to a lot of people who disagree with some of my points of view, and I’ve expanded my points of view on certain things that are very important to me about the culture. I’ll talk about that another time, but that’s because of debate. To silence a woman like that is shameful, and to take away the thing that she worked for and earned is shameful.