Some pageant fans are not happy with how Miss USA Sarah Rose Summers, Miss Colombia Valeria Morales, and Miss Australia Frances Hung treated some of their fellow Miss Universe candidates who can’t speak English.
Summers, Morales, and Hung are in hot water after netizens called them out due to an Instagram Live video that circulated on social media wherein they are allegedly making fun of Miss Vietnam H’Hen Nie for not knowing how to speak the language.
The video started out with Miss USA asking Miss Colombia and Miss Australia what they think about Miss Vietnam.
“Oh my God, she’s so cute,” Miss Australia answered, while Miss Colombia commended Miss Vietnam for her “elegant fashion”.
Miss USA then said, “She’s so cute and she pretends to know so much English, and you ask her a question and after having a whole English conversation with her, she goes —” and then proceeded to mimicking Miss Vietnam’s smile which drew laughter from the two other beauty queens.
“She’s adorable,” Miss USA reiterated while copying Miss Vietnam’s smile once again.
In another video, Miss USA said that Miss Cambodia Rern Sinat must be having a difficult time during the course of the pageant because no one understands her.
“Miss Cambodia is here but she doesn’t speak any English, and not a single other person speaks her language. Can you imagine?” she said.
Turning to Miss Colombia, Miss USA added, “You at least speak pretty good English.” Miss Australia then cut in the conversation to say that Miss Colombia has her Latina friends who can speak Spanish.
Miss Colombia then said that Miss Brazil also couldn’t speak English but Miss USA countered by saying “there are other women who speak Portuguese.”
The video ended by Miss USA looking into the camera saying, “Poor Cambodia.”
As soon as the video spread on social media, many netizens weighed in on the three beauty queens’ behavior and most of them did not like what they said about the other non-English speaking candidates.
The Instagram page of Diet Prada also gave their two cents on the video and compared Miss USA to the iconic movie character Regina George from the film “Mean Girls”.
“Sarah Rose Summers hopefully will prove that ignorance will not win you a Miss Universe title… whatever that means these days. This is basically what normalized xenophobia looks like. If she’s trying to show empathy, the condescending, intolerant tone tells a different story,” Diet Prada said.
Miss USA, Miss Colombia, and Miss Australia have yet to release a statement regarding the videos.
