2014 Miss America Twitter Backlash

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Overview

2014 Miss America Twitter Backlash refers to a series of angry, racist messages that were prompted in response to the crowning of Miss New York Nina Davuluri, who became the first Indian-American contestant to win the title of Miss America in September 2013.

Background

On September 15th, 2013, Miss New York Nina Davuluri was crowned as the 87th Miss America, becoming the first woman of Indian descent to hold the title. Shortly after Davuluri was crowned, a slew of racist comments and insults directed towards the pageant contestant began surfacing on Twitter.

Developments

News Media Coverage

At about 12:33 a.m. on September 16th, BuzzFeed staff Ryan Broderick first reported on the racist backlash in a compilation post titled "A Lot Of People Are Very Upset That An Indian-American Woman Won The Miss America Pageant,"^[5] highlighting nearly two dozens of tweets that are either gravely misinformed or plainly racist.

Throughout the day, additional screenshots of angry tweets targeted at Davuluri were featured on CNN^[8], International Business Times^[6], CBS News^[1], NPR^[3], The Village Voice^[9] and The Huffington Post^[2], as well as a number of news media outlets in India and the Middle East.