Malaysian beauty queen draws heavy criticism over racist comments

June 1: Former beauty queen Samantha Katie James, caused outrage in the past 24 hours for her off-colour remarks over the Black Lives Matter movement. She uploaded a series of controversial posts about the movement on her Instagram story addressing that African Americans “chose to be born as a coloured person.”

The 25-year-old, is a Malaysian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Malaysia 2017. Miss Universe Malaysia Organization expressed the shock over racial comments and issued a statement that Samantha’s remarks were “inappropriate, offensive, unacceptable and hurtful.” The Organization also distanced itself from the controversy, stating that those are her own views and not of MUMO.

Celebrity and former beauty queen Datuk Yasmin Yusoff urged Samantha Katie James to take down her controversial remarks on the Black Lives Matter movement and advised her to publicly apologise to the world which has outraged social media users in Malaysia and overseas.

Malaysian actor Henry Golding also criticised former Miss Universe Malaysia, Samantha Katie James for her controversial remarks on the ongoing nationwide protests in the United States. Current title holder Shweta Sekhon, , Alicia Amin and more have taken their stand against Samantha and racism.

In Samantha’s first Instagram story, she wrote:

“I don't live in America, it has nothing to do with me, but to me, it seems like the ‘whites’ won.

Because if you're angry, you respond in rage and anguish.

That means it has power over you. They have power over you.”