Miss Teen USA Karlie Hay has been proved to use the “n” word in a series of tweets from 2013. The massive attention being called to the issue raises a few questions. Should her title be revoked? How accountable is a person for tweets made 2+ years ago? Shouldn’t some mistakes be forgiven? She’s only a kid so why is she being so harshly criticized?
Understand that some mistakes are greater than others. “Kids will be kids” and “Live and learn” usually pertains to broken vases and mud on the carpet; not racial epithets. It is known that Karlie was about 15 years old at the time of her tweets. Fifteen years old makes her about a sophomore in high school. Fifteen years old is more than old enough to grip onto the word’s place in American culture. One does not simply learn the word having no clue of its cultural history. One cannot be blindly ignorant to the history behind the “n” word. There is too much controversy bombarding our consciousness to be unaware. The vast majority of children her age aren’t and weren’t tossing out racial epithets. To pretend that this behavior is normal is only a thinly veiled attempt at annulling one’s own culpability.
In addition, her stature places her in the public eye, open to much more scrutiny. Should she not have checked her social media accounts for any controversial posts before running for Miss Teen USA? Should not Miss Teen USA stand for the same values of our great nation: acceptance and tolerance. By spewing racially insensitive epithets, she openly alienated a portion of the nations population. Should she not have to answer for her insensitive past before accepting a title representative of America’s teen youth? What kind of message does it send for Miss Teen USA to be casually tossing around the “n” word?
The concern that prompts Karlie’s staunch supporters stems from a fear of having one’s own issued past criticized. Many of the men and women hellbent on protecting her see themselves in Karlie. Much more concern is shown for protecting Karlie than is shown for making sure that the behavior has been corrected. And this shows where the protectors’ priorities lie. They prioritize protecting a young adult, clearly aware of her wrongdoing over the erradication of racist tendencies.
Should Karlie be condemned for her actions? Not completely. I have confidence in change. She will likely learn from this incident and change her ways so long as she remains in the public eye. But this cannot go without punishment. This sets a precedent in the Miss Teen USA pageant. The pageant can either ignore this discovery and subtly uphold racist behaviors, or they can show Karlie and the rest of America that this behavior is unacceptable by removing her title. If the “best” teenage girl in the United States spews racial epithets, I wonder what the worst one does.
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