Rising above race

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ - SEPTEMBER 15: Miss America 2014 contestant Miss New York Nina Davuluri wins the 2014 Miss America Competition at Boardwalk Hall Arena on September 15, 2013 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Michael Loccisano/Getty Images/AFP== FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

WHEN Miss New York, Nina Davuluri, danced her Bollywood fusion across my television screen, I smiled. This is the United States of America, I thought. Here is this gorgeous woman, born and raised in America – a New Yorker at that – paying homage to her culture as an Indian-American. Isn’t that the beauty of the United States, built up of so many different people? Is that not symbolic of the “salad bowl” so many of the elementary school teachers in the US teach in social studies?

But when she won the Miss America pageant last Sunday night, the backlash was immediate.