Former Miss Universe Malaysia issues confusing apology for her tone-deaf statement
3 Jun – After angering the masses with her tone-deaf remarks about black Americans, Samantha Katie James yesterday took to Instagram again, this time to issue an apology.
The former Miss Universe Malaysia, who won the title in 2017, was responding to netizens who asked her to clarify her "black people chose to be black" statement.
Read her full apology below.
A post shared by Samantha Brahmacharini (@samanthakayty) on Jun 2, 2020 at 7:46am PDT
The 25-year-old also pointed out once again that she was born to a Chinese Malaysian mother and a Brazilian father, but was raised by an Indian Malaysian foster family.
This reiteration is presumably in response to those (including National Director of Miss Universe Malaysia Elaine Daly, who carries an Irish surname) who questioned why she identifies as a "white" person despite her Malaysian background.
A petition to have her stripped of her Miss Universe crown and title is currently accepting signatures on Change.org. At the time of writing, it has collected more than 62,000 signatures. (Yesterday morning, it numbered around 9,000).
Following her remarks on Instagram Stories a couple of days ago, a video from an unknown source that allegedly further highlights her views towards black people has started circulating on social media yesterday.
In the video, in which she appears to be in an inebriated state, she can be seen talking down to a black woman and it escalated almost to the point of physical alterations.
(Photo source: Samantha Katie James' Instagram)
