Let Jakiyah Keep Her Crown

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Devastated Little Miss Hispanic winner,  stripped of her crown because she's 'not Latin enough'

  • Jakiyah McKoy's family insists her late grandmother came from La Vega, Dominican Republic
  • Pageant rules require contestants be of 'at least 25 percent Latin heritage'
  • ‘There is no information on this deceased woman': According to pageant sponsors, Jakiyah's family could not prove her heritage
  • Jakiyah's supporters claim she lost the title because of her black skin

Jakiyah McKoy is a 7-year-old who was recently named the winner of the Little Miss Hispanic Delaware pageant. After complaints that Jakiyah's beauty doesn't "represent Latino beauty" because she is Afrolatina, Nuestras Raices Delaware, the organization sponsoring the pageant, withheld her title pending an investigation of her heritage, an investigation which none of the other contestants were subjected to. Jakiyah McKoy took the top prize in the pageant also known as Miss Chiquita Delaware, stirring immediate outcries from some attendees because McKoy ‘was not the best representative of a Latin beauty.’

Why? Because her skin was of a darker color than the other contestants, though sponsor Nuestras Raíces Delaware claims it was the girl’s family’s inability to prove the requisite ’25 percent latina heritage’ that motivated them to strip her of the title.

Jakiyah's Dominican grandmother has died and came to this country undocumented, the family was unable to provide proof and Nuetras Raices took Jakiyah's crown away.

Many people are outraged about Jakiyah's story. When Jakiyah won, she walked on stage to a huge applause, smiling with her crown. Again and again, we see racism dividing us and damaging our children.
 
As the new majority-minority community Latin@s must realize that one of the responsibilities of increased social/political influence is in not reproducing the discrimination based on skin color here in the US which is too often practiced in their home countries. Despite what many wish to portray, denial of black identity among many Latin@s is ultimately denying Latin@ identity itself.

Latinos come in all colors - we are "mestizos" and Jakiyah represents our African Roots -- Jakiyah is a beautiful representative of "Nuestras Raices" -- Nuestras Raices Delaware - stop the self hate and educate yourselves on what it means to give honor to "Nuestras Raices."

Unfair? Jakiyah's pretty face graced the cover of this Spanish language paper, but a couple of weeks after she was crowned, she was stripped of her title of Little Miss Hispanic Delaware. Pageant Rep Perez, meanwhile, claims the issue has arisen before. She told Latino Rebels that when questions arise over a contestant’s authentic Hispanic roots, her organization asks for proof.

In the end, it could boil down to a simple lack of documentation, and not a lack of Latina heritage, that has caused this controversy.
 
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