Anonymous, VDARE, January 5, 2020

The Steve Sailer article on effective set-asides in beauty pageant top prizes was both sad and bemusing. Bemusing because it is predictable like a stock vaudeville joke, and sad for the contestants who might have won if the unspoken, informal set-aside regime did not exist to render beauty pageants just another quota filling system.

However, let VDARE readers be not troubled. There does still exist a merit-based pageant.

Miss Rodeo America judges its contestants on “. . . horsemanship competition, a written test on equine science and rodeo knowledge, extensive interviews, extemporaneous speaking, and a fashion show. The top five contestants – from Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Washington – each answered a question about how to share differing viewpoints while maintaining friendships.”

Taylor McNair, the 2019 winner, is quite the achiever:

In 2017, Taylor earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Business with a concentration on Policy and Law from Mississippi State University, where she competed on the Equestrian and Rodeo Teams. To enhance her strong voice for agriculture, Taylor will pursue a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree with a Master of Law in Agricultural and Food Law.

It appears that most of the young ladies also know the meaning of work. Taking care of horses involves rolling up the sleeves and getting your hands dirty, cleaning out horse hooves/shoes, shoveling out stalls, toting bales of hay, skilled riding is not easy.

The contestants are more than intelligent, talented high achievers — they are also drop-dead gorgeous in their fashion competition.

Although not part of the competition, they are probably also handy with firearms. Many places in ranching country have physical hazards such as feral hogs, rattlesnakes, etc., so it is common while working on ranches to carry a sidearm for self-protection. And often keep a rifle nearby for good measure.

Kudos to all the people involved in this worthy organization that awards many scholarships to hard working young ladies — on merit.