Pageants have long perpetuated the notion that straight, long, flowing hair is far more desirable. Then, it happened again Cheslie Kryst, a civil litigation attorney representing North Carolina walked away with the Miss USA 2019 title and for the first time ever, three black women currently hold the 2019 Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss America crowns. I felt seen.įast forward to this year’s Miss Teen USA, America got another dose of #BlackGirlMagic when Connecticut’s Kaliegh Garris became the new titleholder while rocking her natural hair. Then in 2016, the Miss USA pageant ended with Deshauna Barber, a dark-skinned Black woman and the pageant’s first military winner, having a crown placed atop her luscious natural curls. Growing up, the thought of entering my state’s teen pageant crossed my mind for a quick second before reality set in: America doesn’t want to see a Black girl like me as its Miss “whatever” winner. I only need one hand to count the number of Black women who have been crowned Miss USA in the pageant’s 60-plus year history-and just a few fingers for the Miss America pageant (which crowned its first Black winner, Vanessa Williams, in 1984).
