Miss Teen USA Karlie Hay tweeted the n-word a lot back in 2013 & 2014

Posted by Tandra Barner on Thursday, April 25, 2024

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Here is our new Miss Teen USA. She is Karlie Hay, an 18-year-old. She was Miss Teen Texas. She’s very pretty and she reminds me of a young Julianne Hough. At first, everyone thought the controversy at this year’s Miss Teen USA pageant was going to be that all of the five finalists were about as diverse as a jar of mayonnaise. All five finalist had blonde hair and blue eyes. Which, sure, that happens. Okay. But then people started looking through Karlie Hay’s Twitter account and they were like, “Wow, this young woman sure liked to use the n-word a lot for someone with blonde hair and blue eyes.”

Go here to see some of her (alleged) screencapped tweets – to be fair (????), she’s not tweeting the n-word with, like, #WhitePower or #TexasAryan4Lyfe. These are not malicious or political tweets, per se. She’s a blonde Texan teenager attempting to be “street” and from what I can tell, she’s calling her friends the n-word. I’m also assuming all of her friends are white.

Shortly after she won the Miss Teen USA pageant, Karlie or someone on her team finally got around to deleting those tweets from her @RealMissTXteen account. And then she offered this apology… without ever actually apologizing?

Several years ago, I had many personal struggles and found myself in a place that is not representative of who I am as a person…

— Karlie Hay (@RealMissTXteen) July 31, 2016

I admit that I have used language publicly in the past which I am not proud of and that there is no excuse for. Through hard work…

— Karlie Hay (@RealMissTXteen) July 31, 2016

Through hard work, education and thanks in large part to the sisterhood that I have come to know through pageants, I am proud to say that…

— Karlie Hay (@RealMissTXteen) July 31, 2016

I am today a better person. I am honored to hold this title and I will use this platform to promote the values of…

— Karlie Hay (@RealMissTXteen) July 31, 2016

The Miss Universe Organization, and my own, that recognize the confidence, beauty and perseverance of all women.

— Karlie Hay (@RealMissTXteen) July 31, 2016

Which, if you really parse what she’s saying, isn’t REALLY an apology. She’s saying “Woe is me, I used those words because I was going through a hard time, but please don’t worry about me, I’m fine now that I won Miss Teen USA.” Then again, if she had tweeted “I’m sorry, my bad,” would we have believed her?

The pageant people waited to see what the fallout would be, and then decided to stick with Karlie. This is the pageant’s statement:

“The language Karlie Hay used is unacceptable at any age and in no way reflects the values of The Miss Universe Organization. As Karlie stated, she was in a different place in her life and made a serious mistake she regrets and for which she sincerely apologizes. Karlie learned many lessons through those personal struggles that reshaped her life and values. We as an organization are committed to supporting her continued growth.”

[From USA Today]

Eh. Is the Miss Teen USA pageant a national therapy session on race in America? No. But I also feel like everyone is bending over backwards to give the pretty blonde girl a second chance, and that’s a second chance that a beauty queen of color would have never gotten. Our current Miss USA is an African-American woman – imagine if Deshauna Barber had a Twitter feed littered with slurs against white people. I imagine the reaction would be much, much different. And that’s my issue – this whole thing is textbook white privilege.

Sweet dreams from #MissTeenUSA. pic.twitter.com/VmU9JsCJ6A

— Karlie Hay (@MissTeenUSA) July 31, 2016

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Photos courtesy of WENN.

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