Miss America Nina Davuluri brushes off racist remarks

Ann Oldenburg | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Miss America crowning sparks racist reaction Miss America crowned its 1st winner of Indian descent Nina Davuluri Sunday in Atlantic City. Soon after the announcement, racist tweets flooded the internet.

Social media was abuzz overnight in the wake of Nina Davuluri being crowned as Miss America 2014.

And a lot of the tweets were attacks on the fact that she is the first woman of Indian descent to win the pageant and wear the crown.

She was referred to as "the Arab," by some and other commenters noted "This is America, not India." One called her "Miss 7-11."

There were those who huffed about it being inappropriately close to 9/11.

Some mentioned ties to al-Qaeda and at least one flat-out called her a terrorist.

Buzzfeed collected many of them. Some have already been deleted.

Davuluri brushed it all off in her first news conference after winning the crown.

"I'm so happy this organization has embraced diversity," she said, according to AP. "I'm thankful there are children watching at home who can finally relate to a new Miss America."

As for the negativty, she said, "I have to rise above that. I always viewed myself as first and foremost American."

Meanwhile, Davuluri, 24, started her reign having to apologize and explain about a different story entirely.

On Good Morning America Monday, she answered questions about a story that surfaced several days before Sunday night's pageant.

According to Page Six, Davuluri was said to have been heard on tape in July in her hotel room after she was crowned Miss New York as saying that Miss America 2013, New York's Mallory Hagan, was "fat as (expletive)." At the time, she said the remarks were made by "people in my room" and MIss America organizers said there was "no validity" to the report.

"Oh my gosh," said Davuluri on Monday to GMA's Lara Spencer, who co-hosted the show on Sunday. "It was such an unfortunate situation. I never made those comments. I called Mallory and have apologized to her because it was the right thing to do. And we worked it out. She's been an incredible resource throughout this journey."

She noted that she hugged Mallory when the news was announced. "And I'm so thankful to have her be a part of this."

Davuluri also took a minute to say how proud she was of her talent portion of the show. "It's the first time Bollywood has ever been performed on the Miss America stage and it's such an honor for myself, my family and the Indian community, as well."