Delaware Pageant Girl's Skin Color 'Confusing'

Jakiyah McKoy, winner of the Little Miss Hispanic Delaware Pageant, is indeed Hispanic. But she's also black, which, apparently, is confusing to some. Nuestras Raices Delaware, the organization that sponsors the pageant, has launched an investigation into the seemingly mysterious question of 7-year-old McKoy's "ethnicity." In the meantime, the little girl's win is being blocked.

The investigation is the result of critics who were claiming that McKoy, as a black girl, is “not the best representative of Latin beauty.” A Change.org petition to give McKoy back her crown reports that none of the other girls were subject to a similar investigation.

McKoy was born in Brooklyn. Her grandmother is from La Vega in the Dominican Republic. The Little Miss Hispanic Delaware Pageant requires that contestants be at least 1/4 hispanic, a requirement which McKoy fills, thanks to her grandmother. But, according to reports from friends of the family, her lineage is tricky to prove because the grandmother in question is undocumented.

The weight given to this one little girl's win is a bit astounding. McKoy is just one Hispanic individual among the millions of other Americans who fall into the category. She fills the pageant's requirements, and she is absolutely representative of Latin beauty. Just give the little girl the crown she earned.

Top image: Robynlou Kavanagh on Flickr