Can a Beauty Pageant foster Common Ground?
2010 May 18
- Miss USA, Rima Fakih (AP/Isaac Brekken)
Beauty Pageants don’t usually fall under the realm of this blog, despite the ubiquitous beauty queen call for “world peace!” Yet the 2010 Miss USA Pageant winner has garnered attention from unlikely sources for a simple reason: She’s the pageant’s first Arab-American winner.
Fakih, who hails from Michigan and immigrated from Lebanon with her family as a child gives a different face to Arabs and Muslims than is often seen in American media. Her achievement comes at a time of intense debate around immigration.
Already there are cries from critics that her crowning is an “affirmative action” victory. Some have complained that the runner-up, Miss Oklahoma was unfairly punished for voicing a favorable opinion of the recent Arizona immigration law.
Naturally, other disagree. Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, 22, a Muslim law student from Dearborn, Michigan (where Fakih is from) told Salon.com reporter, Jocelyn Noveck:
“With all the stigma that goes around — especially after 9/11 and how people portray Muslims and Arab-Americans — it’s just a great way to knock down all those barriers.”
Read the rest of Jocelyn Noveck’s article on what Fakih’s win might mean for changing images of Arabs.
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