The winner of the Miss Black pageant at the University of Texas faced harsh criticism from social media users for being fair-skinned.
- Rachel Malonson, who parents are racially mixed, entered the pageant with the expectation that she wouldn't place.
- After winning, social media users doubted she has ever "dealt with some of the harsh realities of what it actually means to be 'black.'"
- Kevin Cokley, a UT professor of African American Studies, says this is an example of generation-long tensions.
- "People of African descent who are more phenotypically black, if you will, have not gotten positive messages about their looks and there are just too many examples to count," he said.
