On top of the chaos that is COVID-19, police brutality, a crashing economy, and social unrest, former Miss Universe Malaysia winner Samantha Katie James has decidedly added oil to the fire—in a series of controversial Instagram stories that have earned her a huge amount of flak.
Following the uproar surrounding George Floyd’s death, Samantha chimed in, telling African-Americans to “relax”, and to “take [the injustice and racism they face] as a challenge”. She also added that they “chose to be born as a coloured person in America for a reason”.
Her ignorant and dismissive claims have angered many from all over the world, for obvious reasons. Netizens are determined to rid her of her Miss Universe title, apparent from this petition that was created for that specific reason.
Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding has, too, called her out on her ‘racist nonsense’.
On Wednesday, Samantha posted a series of six texts via an Instagram carousel post to which Dee Kosh has so succinctly encapsulated everyone’s thoughts in his reply, “……..Huh?”. Since nobody seems to understand just what she means, here’s our meagre attempt at decoding her cryptic messages.
1. “Compassion. That is the lesson.”
I generally don’t have qualms about this frame because she repeats the word “compassion” enough times to make her point clear, except for the line “the heart never lies, the heart is forgiving.”
Firstly, the heart never lies because it cannot—it has one job and one job only, which is to pump blood throughout your body. But in all seriousness, I’m failing to see the connection between never lying, forgiving, and compassion. This is a mess from the get-go.
Spiritual Hoo-Haa Lame-o-meter: 4/10
2. “The universe makes no mistake.”
Why then, were you previously crowned Miss Universe, is what I want to know. Also, I don’t quite understand what she’s getting at when she claims that the universe and God “makes no mistakes”.
Is she insinuating that racial inequality was intentionally created by a higher being for the sake of us humans to “learn” something out of it?
Also, for someone who sounds this uneducated, Samantha really repeats the word “lessons” a lot. She also doesn’t let us forget about how every challenge that is thrown our way is a cue for us to “strengthen the quality inside”.
It seems like to her, all our problems would just cease to exist if we just sat down and reflected introspectively.
Spiritual Hoo-Haa Lame-o-meter: 6/10
3. “Our inner world is our outer world.”
Let us just dwell on this phrase for a bit. So who’s going to tell her that randomly throwing in hyperboles doesn’t magically make one sound any smarter?
The crux of what she’s saying here is that how we view the world is a reflection of ourselves—essentially that our realities are shaped by our experiences, beliefs, and mindsets.
Samantha, however, appears to take the term “subjective reality” a tad too far because she seems to sincerely believe that racism and brutality are not objective concepts as long as we don’t give them power.
Spiritual Hoo-Haa Lame-o-meter: 9/10
4. “But you can’t take away my peace of mind.”
“I am in such a peaceful state, this, no one can take away from me.” Samantha seems to have more than enough peace to go around—maybe, then, she should consider using her influence to help ensure that this ‘state of peace’ can become a reality for the victims in question.
Spiritual Hoo-Haa Lame-o-meter: 7/10
5. “What is image, if it can be taken away just like that.”
So our former Miss Universe Malaysia seems to have thrown caution to the wind, and it shows. Yes, it is obvious from her posts and stories that she has not bothered to rectify her wrongs and to educate herself on the issues of racism.
“I’m grateful for this strength I carry to move forward in this.” Oh, she better be grateful for the strength, honey—because she’s going to need a lot of it.
6. “Strength, courage, etc means everything.”
As if her thoughts weren’t a jumbled mess before, this closing line really was the nail in the coffin for me.
Samantha takes us on a rollercoaster from start to finish. First, she preaches lessons about compassion and inner peace. Then she appeals for us to reflect on our innermost thoughts. Finally, she declares that she’s done protecting her image, and instead, that courage means everything to her.
Overall, I can’t recall the last time I read something this incoherent. I do, however, wonder if her thoughts are truly this jumbled or whether the fault lies in how she expresses herself. And while we continue to be baffled by Samantha’s perplexing thoughts, I wonder what other views and thoughts the ‘contrarian’ has in store.
Samantha has issued what she deems to be an “apology” for the rowdy video of her that was captured three years ago. However, on top of her radio silence with regards to her racist remarks, Samantha has added more incoherent mumbo-jumbo straight out of the guidebook for Miss Universe pageant hopefuls to her Instagram stories, saying that it is one’s job to “energetically unclip from systems of oppression”.
She displays her philosophical prowess once more in another set of stories which reads, “I am your mirror as you are mine. What you say, you’re speaking to yourself”.
Nobody knows exactly what she’s getting at by rewording very simple concepts into unnecessarily complex sentence structures, but she continues to be pleased with herself—convinced that she preaches the truth. At least that makes one of us.
She has also made it clear that she “will not apologise to this at all”, so I guess it’s time for us to stop holding on to the hope that that day will finally come.
Whether you’re outraged, upset, or just downright confused about Samantha’s words, I encourage everyone to soldier on in the fight against racism, no matter which part of the world you may be in. Continue to hold the fort in the way you know how, and the way you can. We stand with you. #blacklivesmatter
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