Nina Davuluri, 24, was crowned on Sunday evening as Miss America on the nationally televised pageant, which returned home this year to Atlantic City.
The Indian-American beauty overcame accusations that shebad-mouthed others entrant to win the contest. And within minutes of winning, she then faced racist comments on Twitter, some of which have already been pulled down.
But MissDavuluri has shrugged off the hateful comments. In interview after being crowned Miss America, she said: 'I have to rise above that... I always viewed myself as first and foremost American,'according to Associated Press.
While the majority of people online rushed to congratulate the new Miss America, whose $50,000 prize money will help fund her stated ambition of attending medical school, racist comments also began to trickle onto the web.
Meredith Talley (@MeredithRoanell) said: 'This is Miss America... Not Miss Foreign Country.' Her Twitter profile disappeared shortly after her racists tweet, which was shared by numerous people, most were shocked at her comment.
Kat (@KathrynRyan50), who says on her Twitter profile that she is happily in love with her 'savior Jesus Christ', posted: 'Shes (sic) like not even american and she won miss america.' Kat also later deleted her own comment from her profile.
One girl starts her tweet by saying, 'I'm not a racist...' then goes on to question how Miss Davuluri can represent America 'doing an Indonesian dance'.
A user who calls herself 'FoxxiLiberal' (@FoxxiLiberal) and describes herself as a 'humanist,' and 'prochoice' posted: 'When will a white woman win Miss American? Ever?'
While Matt Haney (@OneProudHonkie) alleged online: 'How can you be Miss AMERICA and look like you should be a gas station clerk or motel owner?'
And Elizabeth (@EJRBuckeye) said: 'Well they just picked a Muslim for Miss America. That must've made Obama happy. Maybe he had a vote.'
She succeeds another Miss New York, Mallory Hagan, whose tenure was cut short when the pageant moved back to Atlantic City after a six-year stint in Las Vegas, where winners were chosen in January.
It has been reported that there is bad blood between the pair after Ms Davuluri allegedly called her predecessor 'fat as s***.'
However competition authorities say the allegation has been proved false. It is thought one of her entourage made the insulting remark.
After winning the Miss New York competition on July 16, Ms Davuluri invited friends back to her hotel room to celebrate, and that's when another competitor overheard her slinging insults at Ms Hagan.
When the conversation turned offensive, a beauty queen in an adjoining room started to record the conversation.
In addition to the fat comment, friends of Ms Davuluri were heard making racist comments, reports the New York Post.
Following the incident, Ms Davuluri apologized for her friends' comments on Facebook, but said she did nothing wrong.
'I want to apologize for the awful statements made by people in my room... There were people who claimed to be my supporters and said things I never agreed with, nor supported,' Ms Davuluri wrote. 'I was never a part of the words or statements that may have been hurtful... I'm sorry if someone said something that was inappropriate.'
A representative for Ms Hagan said that the situation was investigated in July and that there is 'no validity to the story whatsoever.
'Miss New York spoke to Mallory Hagan to let her know there was no validity and to apologize if she was offended in any way,' the rep said.
Moments after winning the 2014 Miss America crown, Ms Davuluri described how delighted she is that the nearly century-old pageant sees beauty and talent of all kinds.
'I'm so happy this organization has embraced diversity,' she said in her first press conference after winning the crown in Atlantic City, N.J.'s Boardwalk Hall.
'I'm thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America.'
Her pageant platform was 'celebrating diversity through cultural competency' and shehad performed a classical Bollywood fusion dance for her talent competition.
Via Dailymail
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