On Sunday, I covered Miss Michigan Kathy Zhu’s loss of the Miss World America crown over her comments about, in part, trying on a hijab. The beauty queen released a video response to the accusations of racism and Islamophobia, in which she took up the mantle of liberty and diversity of thought (here).
Due to the controversy, CNN’s New Day invited the immigrant (in the accurate sense of the word) to discuss. But when Kathy got on air, she was grilled by host Alisyn Camerota as if she’d taken the witness stand.
Kathy touted fact and freedom of speech:
“You shouldn’t just take tweets out of context. I think it’s super important to see the full context of the tweet, and the full conversation. Everything I posted was statistics and my opinions, and I think that, you know, we should be empowering women’s voices and not just stripping them of their title only because of their opinions.”
Alisyn read a past tweet about black-on-black crime, which went as follows:
“Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others.”
The host suggested to the beauty queen her comment possessed a “ring of racism,” and she tried to help Kathy woke up:
“Do you see how that could be seen as offensive? Why would you focus on blacks causing black deaths when the majority of white deaths are caused by white people? This is why people think that this has a ring of racism to it. You didn’t mention the white statistic.”
The shamed contestant attempted a defense:
“Again, this was in response to another person’s tweet talking about how cops kill black people.”
The former Miss World America had already informed Alisyn that her response was to the notion that “all cops are bad people” and that they “kill innocent black people.”
“And if you think statistics and facts are racist,” she said, “then I don’t know what to tell you.”
But Perry Maso– I mean, Alisyn, pushed:
“It’s just which ones you highlight, since, you know, you could have said the thing about white people.”
https://twitter.com/PoliticalKathy/status/1153295256290566145
As for the Muslim headdress, the 20-year-old had once waxed philosophic on her campus’s “Hijab Awareness Day”:
Her tweet:
“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?”
Kathy to Alisyn:
“I think that it’s really rude, to Muslims too, to wear their sacred garment on someone who isn’t a Muslim themselves. I wouldn’t want to put a Catholic rosary on someone if they aren’t Catholic.”
The host hammered:
“But that’s not what you said. You said it wasn’t that you felt badly for them, that you weren’t Muslim. It’s that you said, ‘Are you just trying to get women used to be oppressed under Islam?'”
Geez Louise.
Kathy contended there’s Muslim oppression of women in other parts of the world”
“There are so many women in Muslim countries right now who are being stoned to death because they don’t want to wear a hijab due to their husband’s requirement to do so. I think we should be focusing on that.”
Bill Maher agrees.
But Alisyn Camerota likely doesn’t.
Not-yet-21 Kathy Zhu got grilled on live television, over — it seems — things she didn’t mean to imply. Check out the full interview above, and let us all know your reaction in the Comments section.
To be fair to the Collusion Narrative Network, Kathy shoulda seen it comin’. They weren’t poised to be a fan, from the outset — witness the horror:
https://twitter.com/PoliticalKathy/status/1152632664093913089
-ALEX
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