A Michigan pageant contestant and fan of President Donald Trump was stripped of her title for what she calls discrimination against her conservative political views.
Zhu is a well-known political commentator and online figure, amassing approximately 80,000 followers in her Instagram and Twitter accounts combined.
“I have seen this happen before,” Zhu told the Free Press on Thursday. "It is just not okay to be prejudiced against people who just have a different political view as you.”
Miss World America did not respond with comments despite repeated attempts to contact her.
Despite the apparent support from her peers, the tweets Zhu claims caused Miss World America to dissociate with her have caused backlash on social media.
But Zhu still defends the two now-deleted tweets that she blames for her firing.
The first is an incident that dates to 2018, in which Zhu went up to a Muslim Student Association booth celebrating World Hijab Day and declined to wear a hijab when prompted. She then 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?”
“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,” said Zhu. “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 says:
“Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community before blaming others.”
“This applies for every community,” Zhu said. “If there is a problem, fix things in your own community before lashing out at others and trying to find an issue there. That is all I wanted to say. It is not a problem against black people. Obviously I am not racist or stuff like that.”
Zhu said that Miss World America should be more specific and clearly define what “insensitive” means, as she does not believe anything she posted was insensitive.
This isn’t a news story from David Brennan, it’s an opinion piece. Examples of how Brennan inserts his left-wing bias into the “article,” in response to Kathy Zhu’s question “Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks?” he wrote “Zhu did not provide any actual statistics or facts to back up her assertion.” The issue isn’t whether or not she provided the statistics as if she had them at her fingertips, but is the statement implied in her question true or not. As a “journalist” this should have been Brennan’s job. If Brennan had done his job he could have discovered that blacks/African Americans represent 13% of the population, but FBI statistics from its Uniform Crime Reports showed that blacks account for 27.8% of total arrests (in 2014; other years show similar high percentages), and 51.3% of arrests for murder. These stats and many others are confirmed by the National Crime Victimization Surveys put out by the Department of Justice. When it comes to race of perpetrator, blacks commit 90% of homicides against other blacks. In other words, Kathy Zhu is factually correct. Brennan claims Zhu contradicted herself on her story about refusing the hijab. How? She could have “politely declined” as she stated while the Muslim woman could have ignored her refusal and persisted in trying to force her to wear the hijab. Brennan should take a logic class and study up on what constitutes an actual contradiction, then he could follow up on straw man fallacies and how to avoid making them.
He quotes Zhu asking a question asking if MWA advocates for the punishment of women who refuse to wear a hijab, then writes “she did not provide any evidence.” Uh, she asked a question, and one does not need to provide evidence within questions. Besides that, if the MWA is calling her refusal to wear a hijab “Islamophobic,” then that COULD be considered EVIDENCE that they are advocating for the punishment of women who refuse to wear hijabs. Public shaming and slander are forms of social punishment.
Brennan ends by falsely claiming – without evidence – that Robby Starbuck “incorrectly interpreted the incident,” and Joy Villa “also misread the situation” by “falsely claiming Zhu had been blocked from competing because the [sic] was a conservative.” In fact, Zhu’s comments are common among conservatives and are neither racist nor Islamophobic, and she was fired for them. He could have also investigated to see if contestants who made liberal political statements on social media kept their jobs, but that would have required actual journalism.
Something truly tragic with this story. Ms. Zhu, according to the article, immigrated (legally) to the US from China, a place where she would not only be stripped of her title but probably also gulagged for speaking out against the establishment (In China’s case, the government).
Now here she is, in the US, in the supposed Land of the Free, and she’s still getting stripped of her title, “but at least she’s not getting gulaged.”
NO! NO! NO! Punishing someone for speaking statistically proven facts and backing up their argument with links to said facts should not be punished! Ms. Zhu, a legal immigrant/refugee (tbh I consider any Chinese Immigrant to the US as refugees), woman, and Asian. Isn’t that three checkmarks on the oppression pyramid or does her being a statistically smarter Asian negate those points?
Those idiots on the left want to talk about stunning and brave? THIS WOMAN is the personification of both stunning and brave! She fled a horrible country to seek a better life, on pain of death! She highlights statistical facts and proven truths to shine a spotlight on the issues in hopes of fixing and changing them, something that is expected of the MWA participants, and what happens?! She gets demonized, attacked, fired from her job, and targeted for this! Shame on the MWA!
We need a new women’s pageant of some kind, where only true American women who love America can participate. I suggest the Miss Liberty or Miss Columbia pageant as a good name.
What a shame to treat someone that has immigrated from a COMMUNIST country to a country where free speech is part of the Bill of Rights.
Her only crime is not being PC.Its not racist to point out the problems that are prevalent in minorities .
I hope she files a lawsuit and wins. They literally discriminated against her and took something away from her because she wouldn’t try on a hijab. She’s not a Muslim and that’s a religious device she shouldn’t be forced to wear Muslim headgear.
That is a good point about religion, but I am not so sure wearing a hijab is always about religion.
The point you made is relevant in that she is not a Muslim and therefore she has no obligation to wear a hijab. As a matter of fact, it could have been viewed as insulting if she has no cultural or religious reasons for doing so.
Most observant Muslim women seem to wear it all the time unless they are very “westernized” and even those seem to wear it anytime attending a religious event.
It’s becoming more ridiculous every day with the CODDLING of Muslims and the Islamic religion. The Leftists aren’t upset about genital mutilation of young Muslim girls.
I hope she files a civil suit against them and gets every penny of theirs. I would like to see this Intelligent young woman debate one or all of the B Squad.
That would be due to the fact that a failure to comply can get a woman attacked by the zealots, or arrested by the Islamic Thug Police so again religious rather than cultural.
I’m trying to think of my time in the ME and I don’t remember non Muslim women every wearing them except where mandated by religious law such as in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran under Komeni .
