I don’t usually pay much…or any…attention to the Miss America pageant. But this one has caught my attention.

First of all, since Ms. Davuluri is from Fayetteville, NY, a suburb of Syracuse, I consider her something of a Local Girl Made Good, and take a little pride in that. Upon discovering that she was planning to use the $50,000 prize money to go to Med School, I couldn’t help but shake my head a little. “Indian Doctor” is just as much a stereotype in certain quarters as “Jewish Banker” – but then, I suppose there are worse stereotypes to live up to.

Second…this. This pisses me right. The fuck. Off.

And this is even worse. At least most of the people in that first article were just random dumbshits on the internet. If a representative of a major network feels free to make such a transparently racist (but just barely deniable) statement without fear for his job, then there’s something poisonous at work in this country.

The sheer stupidity on display here actually takes the racism to a whole other level. If you hate Indian people, that’s wrong. If you hate Muslims and Arabs (note: not the same thing, though there is much overlap), that’s also wrong. But if you hate an Indian-American woman because you’ve mistaken her for Arab and/or Muslim…that’s…that’s not even wrong. I have trouble even imagining stupidity on that scale. How do you tie your shoes in the morning without hurting yourself?

Notice to all inbred, idiot mouth-breathing bigots of America: not all brown people are the same. I know you hate them all, because you’re inbred, idiot, mouth-breathing bigots, but at least try to keep straight which groups you hate, and why.

I mean, fuck’s sake people, a couple years back you pulled over my ex-wife’s cousin because he “looked Arab”. They’re Dominican!

Right, right, I know you don’t know what a “Dominican” is. Just file them with the Mexicans. You do anyway. When you’re not mistaking them for Arabs. Of course, they really don’t like it when you do that.

That’s another thing! The Brown People are not all united against you and your Traditional Values! Some hate each other! Some actually go to war with each other, out in those Anti-American wastelands where the Brown People live!

(Speaking of American Values, one of the things that has given me hope about this country, about its promise and what it still has to offer the world, is a law firm where I worked in the early Aughts: the owner and her family members who worked there were all Indian, and their right-hand employees were Pakistani. All first-generation, complete with regular visits to the Old Country. If you don’t know how big that is, let me put it this way: it’s a sign that true world peace may actually happen someday. Similar sign: the existence of an acquaintance from college with a Jewish mother and an Arab father…Syrian, I believe. Absolutely beautiful.)

I could rant at the stupid people all day, but I suppose I would begin to repeat myself before long. Besides, that would allow them to continue to spoil the occasion.

Congratulations, Ms. Davuluri. Good luck at Med School, and don’t let the haters get you down.