Black Women Are Now Being Used As Commodities in the Pageant Industry…Here’s Why That’s Not Okay
By: Eddia Watts
Tags: Normalization, Black Girl Magic, Miss Universe Org, Beauty, Pageants

What’s Happening Now

My point, if you cannot see it, is that between these periods when black women won, other black women throughout the pageant circuit were constantly and consistently told, ‘no, not you.’ It wasn’t until another black woman won an international title where the flood gates opened and women with melanated skin actually could win and were actually, finally showcased and seen for how beautiful they are. The catch was: the tap had to close at some point, and it would remain closed for a while, sometimes decades on end. In the 21st century, the crowning of black women had risen in the mainstream, but you can still only find one or two women of color throughout the halls of winners in certain systems. For the title I consistently compete for, Miss New Jersey USA, the last woman of African American descent was crowned in 2010! An entire decade has passed since this particular crown has graced a black queen.

Since 2016 with the crowning of Deshauna Barber Miss USA 2016, it feels as though she opened up that tap again, but in a very particular way. Deshauna was the first titleholder to win under the new owners of the Miss Universe Organization after Donald Trump’s racist statements about those of Mexican descent backed him in a corner to sell the franchise. The new buyers, William Morris Endeavors/ IMG, decided to round a new corner and chart a new path for the system: They wanted their girls to SPEAK, they wanted more than just a pretty face, they needed a career-oriented woman who knew exactly who she was and overcame every obstacle to get to where she was. The catch seems to be you need to have struggled, but know how to talk circles around a crowd, and be extremely well established in your career. This is the reason why I say Deshauna opened up a very specific kind of gate: she was born and raised in the military. Deshauna broke barriers by becoming the first woman to win the Miss USA title who served in the United States military. This raised the bar for every competitor, but especially black women. We now knew the caliber of women WME/IMG was looking for. The problem comes in where most minorities are statically shown to have a harder time being able to afford the college education needed for jobs that Miss USAs of color in the last five years have had.

After Deshauna, Kara McCollough was crowned Miss USA 2017. Kara marked herself as an even more special case to study after Deshauna. Deshauna may have opened the tap for black pageant competitors, but Kara took that faucet and raised it to 1000 degrees. Born in Naples, Italy, Kara came from a background that most black women don’t and would end up becoming an emergency preparedness specialist for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or how she branded it the night of the Miss USA telecast and throughout her entire reign, ‘A scientist for the United States Government’. During her performance, she also decided to wear her completely natural hair, and while she wasn’t the first to do this on a mainstream stage, she was the first to win doing so and it was something for the media to grab ahold of. During the telecast, she also started a small scandal in which her answer to the final question she stated that universal healthcare for United States citizens was a privilege. A more conservative answer than IMG would have liked, but it still brought them necessary media buzz. This is the media buzz that would turn black women into the commodities they’ve become, WME/IMG just wouldn’t realize it until the next year.

Deshauna Barber winning Miss USA 2016 (Getty Images 2016)

Once Deshauna placed that crown on Kara’s head, the tap was officially opened, and it’s been black girl season ever since. More women started to wear their hair in its natural glory at their state pageants, myself included. It seemed as though more women of color were interested in competing and WME/IMG finally started to see a bit of a return on their investment. In 2018, Sarah Rose Summers won the title of Miss USA 2018, and although a deserving win for sure, most think that the crown was meant for Genesis Davila, the Puerto Rican Miss Florida USA for that year, alas, she did not fare well in the final question. Many would say that the initial media coverage of the new Miss USA was a lot less than the last two who were women of color as well. Not as many Twitter mentions for Sarah many noted. I, personally, also noted that many fan pages were not particularly fans of Sarah. Of course, Sarah got nowhere near the amount of hate Deshauna or Kara received — death threats, being called a monkey, and being called the ’N’ word are some scary things that were said of them solely based on their race — but Sarah received a general amount of, ‘she’s alright’. She wouldn’t get a true media buzz until she had made an insensitive joke during the rehearsals for Miss Universe 2018.

The comments Sarah had made placed her into hot water for many pageant fans, especially those abroad, and although Sarah profusely apologized, there seemed to be a lack of true, genuine empathy from Sarah, especially when it came time for finals night. What does this have to do with what I will call the Black Girl Magic Tap? I believe that it was this incident that solidified many pageant directors in their thinking for the next 2019 pageant season. After this, so many women of color began to win local, state, and national competitions. It could be labeled the Sarah Rose effect, but that would be giving too much credit.

Cheslie Kryst, a lawyer from the state of North Carolina, would win the title of Miss USA 2019. Nia Franklin, an opera singer from New York, would be crowned Miss America 2019. Kaleigh Garris from Connecticut would go on to win Miss Teen USA 2019. Andromeda Peters would go on to win the Miss United States 2018 followed by Alexia Robinson, another scientist with conservative and controversial views, in 2019. Emanii Davis would go on to win Miss Earth USA 2019 and then would go on the become Miss Earth Air 2019 (first runner up at Miss Earth). Zozibini Tunzi from South Africa would go on to become Miss Universe 2019, winning with a buzz cut! The first Miss Universe with naturally short hair! Tori-Ann Singh would go on to become Miss World 2019 a week after Zozibini and her runner up, Miss Nigeria, ran around her onstage and shook her into consciousness, seeming to be extremely happy that a black woman won, even if it wasn’t her. These women, all marvelous individuals, all extremely deserving of their respective titles, are all a product of the Black Girl Magic Tap and the phenomena of this made the media want to finally drink from the tap.

The media attention from all of these wins in one year was ginormous. Cheslie, Kaleigh, and Nia were all highly featured throughout the media, landing a cover of Essence and going on GMA together even though the three titleholders were from two battling systems. Yes, even I felt the excitement! We were all finally being noted and seen in our hobby of being pageant contenders. At the same time, with each win, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread wash over me as the media frenzy increased. It felt as though our race was being exploited by these systems for the media gain. At the same time, I was battling the fact that it wasn’t exploitation, it was a celebration! We finally won! We finally did it. How should one feel when you know you’re being taken advantage of?