Beauty Queens Race Quotes

Nicole did what she'd been taught when she was little and her parents had moved into an all-white neighborhood: She smiled and made herself seem as friendly as possible. It's what she did when she met the parents of her friends. There was always that split second—something almost felt rather than seen—when the parents' faces would register a tiny shock, a palpable discomfort with Nicole's "otherness." And Nicole would smile wide and say how nice it was to come over. She would call the parents Mr. or Mrs., never by their first names. Their suspicion would ebb away, replaced by an unspoken but nonetheless palpable pride in her "good breeding," for which they should take no credit but did anyway. (2.29)

In the forty-year history of the Miss Teen Dream Pageant, she was the only African-American winner—until it was revealed that Sherry had once shoplifted eye shadow from an Easy Rx store and she was drummed out in shame. It didn't matter that in the years since then, two white contestants had been disqualified for sexy phone photos, or that last year's winner, Miss Florida, had been forced to apologize when it was discovered that she had gotten drunk at a frat party and a video surfaced of her sloppily twirling batons in her underwear and bra. No, it was still Sherry Sparks they talked about. (6.92)

"What happened to you?" Nicole said, going down the line. "You used to play Bach on the viola and work at a nonprofit after school. You wanted to go to London and start that cool underground theater and you never, ever moonwalked. And you…you were Episcopalian." Number 3 swiveled her head perfectly. "Not no more, sugar." (8.225-226)