Saturday, September 21, 2013

Real Winner of 2014 Miss America Pageant is Black

For the first time in the history of the Miss America Pageant a young woman of Indian heritage, Nina Davuluri, was crowned Miss America. Like Vanessa Williams, our first African American Miss America, this brilliant and talented young beauty queen was exposed to ignorant rants from people who dislike who she is and what she now has simply because of her racial background. The fact that this type of evil prejudice still exists in America 150 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and fifty years after Martin Luther King gave his "I Have Dream" speech is indicative of the fact that we yet have work to do in the spirit and psyche of many Americans. Predictably, the news media could not resist giving tremendous attention to these unfortunate displays of ignorance and racial intolerance even though they do not represent the overwhelming majority of Americans who are proud of Ms. Davuluri.

If the media really desired a huge "race story" associated with the pageant, it missed chance for a big one. For the first time in the history of the Miss America Organization an African American owned cosmetics company was selected to be the official cosmetics partner for the pageant and all of its contestants.

The cosmetic line used by our new Miss America and all of the Miss America contest participants is R.E.I.G.N. created and manufactured by Joshua Brands. This company and brand is owned by Charles Corpening, a very successful businessman who happens to be an African American - who grew up poor, embraced education as his bridge to a bright future and whose faith in God has empowered him to overcome obstacles that could have stopped him in his tracks. But he never gave up and today his story may be the most inspiring story to emerge from the Miss America event. Corpening was also our first #dfree® instructor when we started #dfree® at First Baptist Church in 2005! He is living proof that applying the principles taught in #dfree® results in Excellent Success! You can hear his story and meet him at our  2nd Annual dfree® Conference.

Perhaps if the news media paid more attention to people like Charles Corpening, ventures like Joshua Brands and relationships between this type of small business and The Miss America Organization, we could educate  those whose prejudice derives from the negative images they see of blacks and other racial minorities. Perhaps if these types of partnerships were better known, more companies would take pride in welcoming new players onto their fields of opportunity and the pieces of our economic puzzle would begin to fit.

Thanks to the Miss America Organization for giving this young New Jersey based company such a tremendous opportunity.

Congratulations to Charles and the entire team at Joshua Brands for making history, creating jobs and providing Miss America with products made in the USA!.


Read the story:

R.E.I.G.N. Cosmetics at Miss America






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