Recently 19-year-old Flora Coquerel was crowned as Miss France. Her mother is from Benin and her win was a good representation of the mixed France that you can see. However, her win also seemed to bring out a nasty side to the country. One where many racists lash out and cause hurt.

Twitter lit up after her win, slurs like the n word and, “it would be good to see a bit of white in our country.” were seen.

French media was said to say that “many claimed that her win was the result of president François Hollande’s ‘Black agenda’ and was just propaganda in regards to Nelson Mandela’s death” according to Clutch Mag Online.

However Flora didn’t take the negativity on board and she showed strength. During her first post-pageant press conference she said:

“I’m proud to represent a cosmopolitan France,”

She went onto say:

“It shows that today’s France is a mixed France, where there is every culture, and I think a lot of people will see themselves in me,”

I guess it’s no surprise that the racists come out of the woodwork for such things but hopefully the masses can celebrate the diversity and with strength from people like Flora they can slowly be pushed into obscurity.