Fil-Am Miss Texas 2022 slams ban on diversity programs in public higher education

Photo from Miss Texas/Instagram

Officially ending her reign as Miss Texas 2022, Filipino-American activist Averie Bishop penned an opinion piece for MSNBC. The beauty queen was slamming Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican Texas state leaders for the passage of Senate Bill 17 last April. The controversial bill bans diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and initiatives across public higher education institutions in the state.

In the piece published on July 8, Bishop opened up about being a first-generation law school graduate. She also shared how she spent her reign as the first Asian American to win the Miss Texas title in its 85-year history. Bishop started “teaching about the importance of diversity and inclusion, fighting directly against our state’s current political agenda.”

Bishop was born in McKinney, Dallas to a Filipino immigrant mother and a fifth-generation Texan and Cherokee Indian father. Growing up in the Texan town, she “attended school in the Prosper Independent School District, where I was one of only two students who looked recognizably Asian American for almost a decade. I was shy and embarrassed by both the way that I looked and the financial circumstances I came from.”

Averie Bishop was born in McKinney, Dallas to a Filipino immigrant mother and a fifth-generation Texan and Cherokee Indian father | Photo from Miss Texas/Instagram

Texas in the eyes of Averie Bishop

But over the years, Bishop found herself changing as Texas did when it grew into a majority minority state. “As a first-generation college student at Southern Methodist University, I witnessed the strength and power of this cultural shift firsthand. I started seeing a new side of my state, a Texas that is home to one of the country’s largest South Asian communities, a thriving Black music industry, generations of Latinx and Chicano cultures, and some of the best Vietnamese food this side of the Pacific.”

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However, as Bishop describes, “state government’s recent attacks on Texas minorities” overturned the strides made to bridge the gap for underrepresented communities through laws like Senate Bill 17. “If our politicians continue to shut out, ignore, and oppress marginalized and minority Texans, the state will never become the socioeconomic and political powerhouse it wants to become,” Bishop said.

Expounding on her criticism against Senate Bill 17, Bishop wrote. “I worry that without DEI departments and policies in our universities, we will ostracize our most vulnerable populations and open them to discrimination. Legislation that protects minority communities isn’t simply ‘woke’ liberal propaganda… They should be considered bipartisan efforts, not divisive wedge issues used to score cheap political points.”

Before she passed the crown, Bishop reminded us that she’s more than just a pretty face. “If Texas truly desires to be ‘bigger and better,’ Gov. Greg Abbott and state leadership must cease its assault on DEI policy and focus on improving the economic and social livelihood of all of us,” she said.

Whether Texas state leaders heard her loud and clear remains uncertain.