The Miss BC Pageant, and its reigning Miss BC, are wanting to set the record straight after a woman claiming to be associated to the pageant used the N-word multiple times in a TikTok video.
Miss BC Bremiella De Guzman, who is from Surrey, told the Now-Leader she found out about a video filmed by 22-year-old Raman Khosa after it was posted to the BlackVancouver Instagram account.
De Guzman said she reached out to BlackVancouver to say Khosa is “definitely not the reigning Miss BC.” Miss BC hasn’t held a pageant since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s definitely detrimental to our reputation just because we are a small, non-profit pageant,” said De Guzman, adding her platform as Miss BC is about inclusion. “It’s definitely hurtful to be called out as a racist even though that’s definitely not something that I stand for and something I even spread awareness against.”
But she said the “bigger issue is you can’t be saying that word.”
“Even if we’re people of colour, we have no right in saying that word.”
In a statement on social media on May 23, Miss BC said Khosa is not associated with the pageant, adding “it has saddened us that such a video was carelessly put up without thinking about how unacceptable the ‘N’ word is.
“We stand firmly against racism and derogatory language in all its forms. Our program includes workshops that develop leadership skills and diversity and inclusion. We hold our titleholders to high standards and are proud of the contribution they make as they continue to serve our community.”
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The TikTok video shows Khosa repeatedly using the N-word while singing along to a song by artist Nav, a Canadian rapper of South Asian descent, who has previously said he will no longer be using the N-word in his music.
After facing heat online, she went onto a podcast with The Laughing Lunatic, titled “Self Proclaimed Miss BC Apologizes,” where she said she was unaware of the inappropriateness and history of the N-word.
In the podcast, Khosa said she has “apologized to them in the DMs and in the comments as well, as many people as I could get to.
“I wanted to come out here and do an apology to, like, the Black community from the bottom of my heart because what I said I shouldn’t have said, and I have many Black friends and I just wish that I hadn’t posted this. But, hey, we all make mistakes at the end of the day and I just wanted to truly from the bottom of my heart I want to say sorry.”
Khosa, who is from Abbotsford, had initially agreed to do an interview with the Abbotsford News, the Now-Leader’s sister paper, but then did not respond to requests after the May long weekend.
Her Instagram profile now says “Miss BC Globe 2020.”
– With files from Ben Lypka
lauren.collins@surreynowleader.com
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