black beauty pageant queens
-
Sink or Swim? A Former Miss America Contestant Weighs In on the End of the Swimsuit Competition
When we heard the announcement last Tuesday that, after years of criticism, the Miss America Organization had decided to abandon its controversial swimsuit competition, we wondered if it might be a case of “too little, too late” in the pageant’s attempt to appeal to a new era of feminism. “We are no longer a pageant,”…
-
This Black Miss Utah State University Contestant Got Real About Microaggressions—and Won
Utah State University junior Alexis Cooper knew that performing her spoken-word poem for the crowd at the Miss USU pageant was a risk. She had considered a more traditional performance for the talent portion of the competition—dancing, or playing the viola or piano. Still, Cooper wanted to make a statement at last week’s competition, for…