Speaker 1: Hey, that folks. It is Thursday, August sixth and she
Speaker 1: was crowned Miss North Carolina just a month ago. Today
Speaker 1: she's waking up the ex Miss North Carolina. So what
Speaker 1: did she do to lose the crown? Yeah, you guessed
Speaker 1: some old social media posts And with that, welcome to
Speaker 1: this episode of Amy and TJ. They they got a
Speaker 1: little love islandy here on this thing, didn't they? This
Speaker 1: seems familiar?
Speaker 2: Yes, this has been a theme this summer specifically. But yes,
Speaker 2: twenty seven year old Britney Bolton House, who yes, up
Speaker 2: until yesterday, was Miss North Carolina USA twenty twenty six
Speaker 2: and was supposed to compete in the seventy fifth annual
Speaker 2: Missed USA contest exactly three weeks from tonight. And look,
Speaker 2: as a former pageant contestant, I can tell you when
Speaker 2: you get to these big state levels and then go
Speaker 2: on to the national championship, there is so much work
Speaker 2: that is going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 3: To get you ready for everything.
Speaker 2: So to have this happen just weeks before the big
Speaker 2: national Miss USA televised broadcast competition, this is a huge
Speaker 2: deal and it had to rise to a very high
Speaker 2: level for them to strip her of her crown just
Speaker 2: a few weeks before Miss USA.
Speaker 1: Okay, rises to what level some social media posts. Look,
Speaker 1: we've seen this plenty of times. Folks who have never
Speaker 1: heard of her had no idea she was Mith North
Speaker 1: Carolina can already guess possibly what got her in drum?
Speaker 2: Yes, so I'll say this Officially, it's vague. Officially, we
Speaker 2: heard from the producers of the Miss North Carolina USA pageant,
Speaker 2: and we've heard from the Miss USA pageant, and they
Speaker 2: are dancing around what many many outlets are reporting that. Yes,
Speaker 2: some old social media posts came to light where she
Speaker 2: used the racial world that no person who isn't black
Speaker 2: can say the N word.
Speaker 3: Yes, and they did reference that.
Speaker 2: Whatever it was that she said, it wasn't a one off,
Speaker 2: It wasn't an oopsie. It was a repeated pattern of abuse,
Speaker 2: so to speak.
Speaker 1: Yes, they wanted to make that point. Does it matter
Speaker 1: if it was one as a matter of if it
Speaker 1: was two, Like, how many times do you need to
Speaker 1: say the N word and you're not a black person
Speaker 1: before you say, ooh, you know what two is our limit?
Speaker 1: I mean what I don't necessarily understand that. But they
Speaker 1: say they didn't have to make that call because apparently
Speaker 1: from what's out there, she was a regular user of
Speaker 1: the inWORD uh, that is correct.
Speaker 2: And they did say this that Brittany will soon issue
Speaker 2: her own statement, and they say that they have done
Speaker 2: this deliberately because they want her to be the one
Speaker 2: to speak about this in her own voice, and they
Speaker 2: wanted to honor that.
Speaker 3: But here's what they did say.
Speaker 2: The miss USA organization does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia,
Speaker 2: nor language that strips any person of their dignity, whoever
Speaker 2: they are. They said, a title isn't a trick. It
Speaker 2: it is a position of trust extended by an organization
Speaker 2: and accepted by a woman who agrees that to carry
Speaker 2: that standard in public. I thought it was interesting because
Speaker 2: this is what they went on to say. When that
Speaker 2: standard is broken, the title cannot continue as though nothing happened.
Speaker 2: What was brought to us was not a single moment.
Speaker 2: It reflected conduct over an extended period of time. That
Speaker 2: is why this outcome was reached and I stand behind
Speaker 2: it without qualification.
Speaker 1: They put on a long statement that said a lot
Speaker 1: without saying enough. For whatever reason, so they I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't want to embarrass her. More clearly. They
Speaker 1: know whatever was presented to them and they just chose
Speaker 1: not to share. Now, I didn't expect them to put
Speaker 1: out every message that came to. Their attention to it
Speaker 1: was vague. It's like she hit everything, racism, trans galmophobia, everything.
Speaker 2: But I haven't seen anything other than the N word.
Speaker 2: So the allegations NC BEAT North Carolina Beat.
Speaker 3: It's a local news outlet.
Speaker 2: They actually have a list of social media posts they
Speaker 2: say that they have verified between twenty seventeen and twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: You can look at it for yourselves. But it is repeated,
Speaker 2: it is casual, it is comfortable, It absolutely appears old.
Speaker 3: She's twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Twenty seven now correct, This stuff goes back nine plus years.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, she would have been a teenager at the time.
Speaker 2: And it was all posted under the name of Sosa,
Speaker 2: this Stallion, and she goes by Sosa, Mama Sosa. Her
Speaker 2: middle name is Alandra, so she used this name Sosa beat.
Speaker 2: Alandra was her online persona, and she called herself Sosa
Speaker 2: the Stallion, And under that name, there are a number,
Speaker 2: as they pointed out, not just one, but a lot
Speaker 2: of posts that do use the N word that talk
Speaker 2: about or brag about being a toxic person. And look,
Speaker 2: you know this, A lot of the arguments have been made.
Speaker 2: When you saw the Love Island controversies pop up, people say,
Speaker 2: this was from ten years ago. I was a teenager.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what I was doing. A mistake shouldn't
Speaker 2: define someone's entire life.
Speaker 3: But look, they.
Speaker 2: Went and went through these social media posts and it
Speaker 2: was a pretty quick swift decision once they saw the
Speaker 2: totality of them. But I do appreciate your point. Is
Speaker 2: one time using it enough or do you have to
Speaker 2: show a pattern of abuse? Does it need to be
Speaker 2: a year's long experience where you are misguided or too
Speaker 2: young to understand? And look, does it matter her ethnicity
Speaker 2: in all of this.
Speaker 1: I wonder what they said to her. I wonder if
Speaker 1: they had a conversation with her. I wanted they gave
Speaker 1: her an opportunity.
Speaker 3: They did so.
Speaker 2: They did specify that the decision actually was made together
Speaker 2: with her, her state directors, and in consultation with the
Speaker 2: miss USA organization.
Speaker 1: In consultation. What does that mean? She she gotta say
Speaker 1: she got to vote. I don't know about that. She
Speaker 1: gotta say in consultation. And we all agree those.
Speaker 3: Are the words that they use.
Speaker 2: That those are the words that miss USA organization used specifically.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I get it for folks who don't, uh.
Speaker 1: And if you're not going to track these down these
Speaker 1: messages that are out there, she is. At least I
Speaker 1: haven't seen a single one in which she was referring
Speaker 1: to someone and calling them this name in order to
Speaker 1: be racist. If you are reading these posts, you would
Speaker 1: just assume a black person was writing them, because she
Speaker 1: is talking like a young black person would talk, a
Speaker 1: kid would talk, from language you hear all the time
Speaker 1: in certain circles. Nothing surprising about what I read. To
Speaker 1: be quite honest with you, you say it came from
Speaker 1: came from somebody that's not black, and that will raise
Speaker 1: alarm bells now the decision they made. Look, people can
Speaker 1: be offended. You know, I'm one that's not offended by
Speaker 1: the N word because I'm from Arkansas, I'm from the South.
Speaker 1: I've been called at plenty. Just that just doesn't phaze me.
Speaker 1: I just don't get wound up about it. It's offensive
Speaker 1: and shouldn't be used. We're on the same page at
Speaker 1: least we should be roll This is this is this
Speaker 1: is one where a woman was the background Honduran and Mexican.
Speaker 2: She's Honduran and Mexican. She's fully Latina. Her parents were immigrants.
Speaker 3: She speaks Spanish.
Speaker 2: She grew up in North Carolina, some smaller little town. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was a smaller town in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Who did she grow up around? I would like to know,
Speaker 1: because this is a thing, uh, And it's very much
Speaker 1: a public thing for some that grow up in Latino
Speaker 1: communities right next door to black folks, and they grow
Speaker 1: up with black folks, and they grow up hearing that
Speaker 1: word all the time, and they grow up using that
Speaker 1: word all the time around black people who they believe
Speaker 1: are giving them permission to do. So you become a
Speaker 1: part of that community, and because your skin is brown,
Speaker 1: sometimes you're able to get rid of it. Fat Joe
Speaker 1: throws the in word around all the time. He's a
Speaker 1: rapper for a Dominican, no Puerto Rican and Cuban. I
Speaker 1: think it is his background, but he grew up in
Speaker 1: the Bronx group around black folks. He wraps all day long.
Speaker 1: There's a line in the song who the F Gonna
Speaker 1: tell Me? That I can't say hmmm, And then he
Speaker 1: says it and no, no, no, no no. He says
Speaker 1: it like seven times. He makes a point of it
Speaker 1: in even one of his songs. I'm saying, some complicating
Speaker 1: factors come in to where I don't know who's running
Speaker 1: that that that pageant, who is sitting down and was
Speaker 1: willing to listen to her about why about why you
Speaker 1: were so comfortable at seventeen eighteen years old to do this.
Speaker 1: I don't know if she could have given anybody sitting
Speaker 1: across the table from her that's white an answer that
Speaker 1: they would understand. But I like the idea of having
Speaker 1: the conversation robes. It's okay that we're having it and
Speaker 1: she doesn't have the crown, But imagine the conversation that
Speaker 1: could be had if she had the crown. She could
Speaker 1: go out and promote and talk. I screwed up. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be the end of your life like
Speaker 1: there was an I just you know how I am
Speaker 1: about throwing people away. I don't think we're throwing her away.
Speaker 1: Fully what this is. I think this is not a
Speaker 1: racist woman necessarily don't know her, but I'm saying the
Speaker 1: way she was talking, she's talking in a way that
Speaker 1: I'm very familiar with Some Latinos talking and getting permission
Speaker 1: from some black folks to talk that way.
Speaker 3: Babe.
Speaker 2: That is so fascinating, And you are right. White people
Speaker 2: don't get it. We don't get it. We know we're
Speaker 2: not supposed to say the N word, but we don't
Speaker 2: understand why some people would and would feel comfortable with it.
Speaker 2: And what you just explain, I think a light bulb
Speaker 2: might have gone off for a lot of funks. You're
Speaker 2: not giving permission or saying it's okay, but explaining the
Speaker 2: why behind it.
Speaker 3: And you're right when you look at.
Speaker 2: These social media posts that are connected to her, they
Speaker 2: aren't calling someone out for being something. It's just using
Speaker 2: the word in everyday conversation that seemed very comfortable and
Speaker 2: very common.
Speaker 1: Oh it's loose, it was no can you what does it?
Speaker 1: I won't even put a social media post up with
Speaker 1: the N word. I won't because you just don't do that.
Speaker 1: That's not appropriate. You don't. She was comfortable and she's seventeen,
Speaker 1: eighteen or whatever the time. Yeah, it's not an excuse. Please,
Speaker 1: the announcement should be made once again, if you are
Speaker 1: not black, don't use the innword. That is the rule.
Speaker 3: Even if you're brown. Even if you grew up around
Speaker 3: doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, doesn't matter what group of black folks
Speaker 1: you grew up in your little town in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: If they gave you permission. The folks from Memphis, where
Speaker 1: I'm from, didn't give you permission, right, We don't know
Speaker 1: you like that. You just don't use it. It's the
Speaker 1: blanket rule, period. Nothing else talk about folks, nothing to
Speaker 1: talk about. Don't care who you are except for you
Speaker 1: Fat Joe. You know I love Joe.
Speaker 3: Well, why does he get a pass? No, Seriously, I'm.
Speaker 1: Curious because of where he came from and how he
Speaker 1: came up. And he has decades robes in the community
Speaker 1: showing himself being a part of the community. And he
Speaker 1: also robes came up with people who were in in
Speaker 1: and out of studios with their boy Fat Joe, who
Speaker 1: was just talking in the studio now and rapping the
Speaker 1: same way he's been rapping and talking to us on
Speaker 1: the street. And he's just gained that acceptance. I think
Speaker 1: most people looking at Fat Joe don't know what he is.
Speaker 3: Anyway, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get mad at him. Lean back and
Speaker 1: lean back. You ain't mad. You know my inwords, don't dance,
Speaker 1: we just pull up our pants. And due to rock Away,
Speaker 1: that's Joe, that's Cuban, Puerto Rican Joe. Is it Dominica?
Speaker 1: I need to get it right.
Speaker 3: But he ain't.
Speaker 1: He ain't black. His most popular song, he's dropping the
Speaker 1: word repeatedly. Nobody's calling for his head. So it's just
Speaker 1: I'm not excusing this, young lady. But there's a next
Speaker 1: question to ask before we just condemn. And so when
Speaker 1: that was my first thing, is she white?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Because when I first brought you this story, you
Speaker 2: started asking me all sorts of questions about her background,
Speaker 2: her ethnicity, if her parents were immigrants, if she spoke Spanish,
Speaker 2: And I was like, why does any of this matter?
Speaker 2: I didn't understand why you were asking so many follow ups.
Speaker 3: I just thought, it's wrong. What does it matter? So
Speaker 3: that is wrong, really fascinating is wrong.
Speaker 1: We are the same page as wrong. But I'm telling
Speaker 1: you a white girl who had posted all that stuff
Speaker 1: very different, I would have a different response.
Speaker 2: That's so I mean that, and that is why these
Speaker 2: conversations are important. And to your point about not throwing
Speaker 2: her under the bus to this to the extent that
Speaker 2: she can never actually have a life again worth living.
Speaker 2: I will say that the Miss USA pageant did put
Speaker 2: in their statement, and I think you might appreciate this.
Speaker 3: There is a young woman at the center of this.
Speaker 2: She has been named, examined, and judged in a public
Speaker 2: in public in a way that most of us would
Speaker 2: not survive. And she is still a human being with
Speaker 2: a family, a future, and a life ahead of her
Speaker 2: that is longer than this part of her journey. I
Speaker 2: will not run an organization that pretends otherwise. I have
Speaker 2: never believed that accountability requires cruelty, or that holding a
Speaker 2: line means enjoying the fall of the person who crossed it.
Speaker 2: Zero tolerance is a standard for conduct. It is not
Speaker 2: permission to strip someone of their humanity, which is after all,
Speaker 2: precisely the thing we are holding her accountable for doing
Speaker 2: to others.
Speaker 1: Too late, it's social media, she's going to get eviscerated.
Speaker 1: I don't know what conversation happening now about her. But
Speaker 1: it's a girl named Britney Bolton House.
Speaker 3: Correct.
Speaker 1: Okay, you immediately are imagining that's not a black person
Speaker 1: when you hear the name. I don't know how much
Speaker 1: people are going to look into her and what her
Speaker 1: background is and where her family's from and all this
Speaker 1: I don't know, and for a lot of people just
Speaker 1: don't care. She used the inWORD lose the crown. You
Speaker 1: should lose the jobs, you should lose, you should be
Speaker 1: completely condemned. You know how many non white women excuse me,
Speaker 1: non black women are walking around right now in their
Speaker 1: late twenties, early thirties, having a good old time career
Speaker 1: taken off, maybe young, married, got a child who got
Speaker 1: a whole list inwards, social media posts from the past
Speaker 1: and videos because they were jamming out in high school
Speaker 1: and college and just using in word, throwing around hip
Speaker 1: hop and all. Yes, haven't ever. Yes, there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of them out there like that, and so we'll see
Speaker 1: more and more. How many girls on Love Island, Billy?
Speaker 2: I mean, it's to this year, right, but it's go
Speaker 2: back last year there were another two. A different one
Speaker 2: was an Asian slur, but still same concept applies. All right,
Speaker 2: when we come back, we're gonna tell you about the
Speaker 2: new Miss North Carolina, USA. And guess what, she's a
Speaker 2: black woman. Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. We
Speaker 2: are talking about the Miss North Carolina US a controversy,
Speaker 2: and yes, we now have a new Miss North Carolina USA.
Speaker 3: She's twenty four years old.
Speaker 2: She was the first runner up and her name is
Speaker 2: Mila Hadley and she will now compete for the title
Speaker 2: of Miss USA. And yes, as I mentioned before the break,
Speaker 2: she is a black woman. And look, that's just the
Speaker 2: way it was. She was the first runner up, but.
Speaker 1: You probably should have run. Oh the irony what she
Speaker 1: probably should have won in the first place, probably got.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, but we did hear. So we're still waiting
Speaker 3: on Brittany.
Speaker 2: As of this recording, still haven't gotten a statement from her.
Speaker 2: But Mila Hadley, the new Miss North Carolina USA, was
Speaker 2: quick to update her Instagram. She already has her crown
Speaker 2: and Miss North Carolina twenty twenty six under her bio.
Speaker 2: But she did put out a statement and she said,
Speaker 2: thank you to everyone for all the support and love
Speaker 2: you've shown me.
Speaker 3: Throughout this entire process.
Speaker 2: I am extremely grateful and humbled by all the encouraging
Speaker 2: messages and the support I've received. I understand the seriousness
Speaker 2: and level of prestige that this title carries, and I
Speaker 2: can confidently say that both my team and I are
Speaker 2: ready to take this on. While this may seem like
Speaker 2: a two week turnaround, given the circumstances, I have been
Speaker 2: preparing to represent at miss USA since I first competed
Speaker 2: with this organization. I am ready to represent North Carolina.
Speaker 1: Gonna pull off with Kamala Harris here. I don't have
Speaker 1: time to prepare for the election, but do it.
Speaker 2: Look Look, the good news is that this was one
Speaker 2: of the later state pageants, So the point being, she
Speaker 2: was in pageant form and ready to go as of
Speaker 2: late June, so only a month has passed. So it's
Speaker 2: not as if suddenly she got rusty. And when I
Speaker 2: say got like, look, these women work out like crazy.
Speaker 2: Their bodies are fit as hell. You have the interview section,
Speaker 2: and so just you gotta brush up on your interviewing skills.
Speaker 2: You gotta make sure you're fit. You got to make
Speaker 2: sure your mindset's ready. But she's got two weeks before
Speaker 2: she heads to Miami, and then the competition again is
Speaker 2: exactly three weeks from tonight at eight pm in Miami.
Speaker 1: But imagine how wonderful a question I would have watched
Speaker 1: the pageant if you told me Bolton House was gonna
Speaker 1: be up there, and she was gonna have to in
Speaker 1: the interview section answer a question about saying the N
Speaker 1: word and what that means and what that represents. To
Speaker 1: do it on that stage, hot to pay attention, how
Speaker 1: to watch it.
Speaker 2: So I think it's so interesting because I never thought
Speaker 2: about it as a lost opportunity. But how do you
Speaker 2: think that would be received though generally speaking by the
Speaker 2: black community, that she would be allowed to keep her
Speaker 2: crown despite what was seen on social media. But given
Speaker 2: the opportunity to make amends or to have a teachable
Speaker 2: moment for folks out there.
Speaker 1: That's when we come into having letting some more reasonable
Speaker 1: voices come through that are our Our reaction to anything
Speaker 1: that goes wrong is just outrage. Let me immediately be outrage,
Speaker 1: and your outraged before you ask a question? Outrage? Then
Speaker 1: what is the uh? What's the thing? Not? Not aim?
Speaker 1: What is it? Aim? Shoot? What's the reverse order.
Speaker 3: Of the aam shoot? Fire? Fire? Shoot? Aim?
Speaker 1: Fire? You fire and then you aim right, you fire
Speaker 1: and then you That's what we do when we react
Speaker 1: to things. We just get outraged and then where does
Speaker 1: it go? We had to direct it to somebody, what
Speaker 1: do you do? And so I think there would have
Speaker 1: been some awful reaction. I think there would have been
Speaker 1: awful reaction from people who just hop on they see
Speaker 1: a headline and you respond to whatever click theait there is,
Speaker 1: bro this is this is happening enough on major stages
Speaker 1: with the same people every time, young non black women. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's have that conversation about what you should be doing,
Speaker 1: what you should be teaching your kids. Do we really
Speaker 1: need to tell folks again? Private public doesn't matter. Where
Speaker 1: you are, doesn't matter if you're sitting on the toilet
Speaker 1: by yourself. Don't utter the inward. Don't if you're not black.
Speaker 1: Just don't follow that general rule. It will save you
Speaker 1: your opportunity on Love Island that's coming seven years from now. Possibly. Yes,
Speaker 1: tell your kids you want to be on Love Island.
Speaker 2: Stop you want to run for office, you want to
Speaker 2: have any sort of basic public job or position these
Speaker 2: days now, your social media is going to absolutely determine
Speaker 2: your fate the in word.
Speaker 1: It's just crazy that anyone sit and again, I just
Speaker 1: maybe folks would take issue with what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 1: just not immediately outraged and condemning. I support if they
Speaker 1: want the crown to be taken away I understand that,
Speaker 1: but man, what an opportunity to have a different conversation
Speaker 1: robes and it is does matter the degrees to which
Speaker 1: you get in trouble for saying the N word, even
Speaker 1: if you publicly you say it. If you're black, that's
Speaker 1: one thing. If you're Latina it's another. If you're white
Speaker 1: it's another. Yeah, those are just different levels of like
Speaker 1: first degree versus manslaughter with white folks and Latinas is
Speaker 1: a different crowd.
Speaker 3: You know what.
Speaker 2: That is fair, But I mean, I really think this
Speaker 2: is a fascinating conversation and with all the headlines, we
Speaker 2: need to be having more of them. But there is
Speaker 2: just this one basic rule to follow, and you said
Speaker 2: it very clearly and very plainly. There are no circumstances
Speaker 2: in which saying the N word is okay if you
Speaker 2: are not black, period, end of story.
Speaker 1: Well, Chris Rock has one scenario, but I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get it, and.
Speaker 3: Fat Joe might be the only exception. That's what I learned.
Speaker 3: I didn't know this, I'm learning.
Speaker 1: I'm learning you would be surprised if some of the folks,
Speaker 1: prominent folks and then you know what, let me stop. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're good let'll just stick.
Speaker 2: With this all right, and without everyone, We always appreciate
Speaker 2: you listening to us.
Speaker 3: I made me Roeboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk soon.