In an interview with CNN, University of Michigan senior Kathy Zhu said she was just citing statistics and facts when she criticized Black people and Muslims.
Last week, the conservative activist was dethroned by the Miss World America organization, which described her tweets as “offensive, insensitive and inappropriate.” The group said she violated the competition’s rules of “good character.”
“Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks?” Zhu wrote in one of the now-deleted Tweets. “Fix problems within your own community before blaming others.”
Asked why she focused on Black-on-Black violence, Zhu said she was responding to a Twitter thread in which people were complaining about police using excessive force on African Americans. Zhu insisted the tweet was not offensive because "it's backed up by facts."
"That's a statistic. You can find it on a website," Zhu told CNN. "I think it's awful how the left thinks it's racist."
What's also backed up by facts is that most white murders are committed by white people, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Zhu's response was also dismissive of another statistic: Black people are disproportionately subjected to police brutality.
Zhu, who is Chinese-American, also targeted Muslims in another deleted tweet stemming from when she was a freshman at the University of Central Florida.
“There is a ‘try a hijab on’ booth at my college campus,” Zhu, who is Chinese-American, tweeted. “So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?” Zhu twisted the narrative, tweeting that she was stripped of “my Miss Michigan title due to my refusal to try on a hijab in 2018.”
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This article appears in Jul 18-25, 2019.
