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Miss Michigan stripped of crown over 'offensive' tweets | TribLIVE.com
U.S./World

Miss Michigan stripped of crown over 'offensive' tweets

Chris Pastrick
Chris Pastrick
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Just four days into her reign as Miss Michigan, Kathy Zhu was stripped of her title over her offensive social media tweets.

Zhu, 20, got the crown June 14, but by Thursday she was out.

“They stripped me of my Miss Michigan title due to my refusal to try on a hijab in 2018, my tweet about black on black gun violence, and ‘insensitive’ statistical tweets,” Zhu wrote on Twitter.

In a tweet, Zhu, who is Asian American, posted the letter she received from Laurie DeJack, State Director of the Miss World America Michigan pageant that said Zhu’s “social media accounts contain offensive, insensitive and inappropriate content.” The letter stripped her of the title, and requested that Zhu remove any and all mention of her involvement in the pageant from her accounts.

Zhu, whose political views lean conservative, said the tweets in question were sent in 2017 and 2018. They have since been deleted.

In one of the posts, Zhu wrote, “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?”

The other tweet had Zhu commenting, “Did you know that the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks? Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others.”

Zhu, who is president of College Republicans at the University of Michigan, posted a video response Friday on Twitter.

“This is about an organization discriminating against people with different opinions, calling people racist even when they’re not,” Zhu said in a Twitter video Friday. “There shouldn’t just be diversity of skin color. There should be diversity of thought, of mindset, of political affiliation.”

“I have seen this happen before,” Zhu told the Detroit Free Press. “It is just not OK to be prejudiced against people who just have a different political view as you.”

Zhu certainly has her backers, many of them posting their support on the very platform that seems to have caused Zhu’s troubles.

Miss World America has yet to comment on the matter.

Chris Pastrick is a TribLive digital producer. An Allegheny County native, he began working for the Valley News Dispatch in 1993 and joined the Trib in 1997. He can be reached at cpastrick@triblive.com.

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Categories: News | U.S./World
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