Playing the race card is getting a bit old now.
Apparently, in July this year, a black woman won the title of Miss England. The first black woman to do so.
Then 2 weeks ago, she was stripped of her title due to her alleged involvement in a nightclub cat-fight over her man.
In an interview I read of her in The Sunday Times Magazine, she lamented why so few have come out to support her and why her winning Miss England should be a much bigger deal than it is.
“If I was the first black Miss America, I wouldn’t be able to sit at this table talking to you, I’d be mobbed.”
Woman, having a black person win a beauty pageant in America 26 years ago was a big deal because racial tensions back then were much higher than it is today and racial equality was still a comparatively new concept. The fact that no one is falling over themselves to make a big deal out of a non-white Miss England is because it is so much less of an issue these days. Consider this an achievement. Consider this proof that we have in fact come a long way. Consider this as progress. Consider this an acknowledgment that you, a black person, is being treated so much more equally now than back in the day when Vanessa Williams won Miss America and that is why no special hoo-hah is being made over you being black.
However, I suspect the main and bigger reason why there is little reporting in the media is simply because people don’t give a shit about beauty pageants anymore. Towards the end of the interview, the article basically answers her questions:
“Britain fell out of love with Miss World in the late 1980s…’Things got so bad I had to do it in Blackpool one year because we had no sponsors, no TV backing, no media interest at all.’ Miss England used to be held at the Dorchester; now it is at a Hilton under the A40.”
I think using your race or ethnicity as a basis of claim for every alleged injustice against you is really just taking the piss and unfairly undercuts the cases of real racial discriminations that occur. It will eventually end up working against you and other ethnic minorities. Remember the boy who cried wolf?
What would you think if I write to Boris Johnson to complain about the lack of packing space for bikes in Chinatown and proceed to exclaim that that is evidence of racial discrimination by his government by assuming that Asians don’t cycle and continue by assusing him of ignoring and not supporting the minority Asian cycling population? Look! He is building bike racks in and around white neighbourhoods but not in Chinatown! Perhaps I should form the London Asian Cycling Coalition (hey, not a bad name actually!) and sue his administration for racial injustice?
While writing that, I will conveniently overlook that fact that bike parking is also a premium in locations like Covent Garden and he is basically just not providing enough amenities in the whole of London in general for an activity that he has so enthusiastically advocated for.
Racial discrimiation, ignorance, and injustices do occur, but don’t take the piss and over do it. Sometimes, when things don’t go your way, you have only yourself to blame.





















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