Recently crowned Miss Washington Teen USA, Kate Dixon, is facing some backlash as a clip of her using a racial slur has resurfaced, with many viewers requesting that she loses her title.
In a video posted to TikTok on February 8 by @juliuspleazerfanaccount, a clip is shown of Dixon, 17, announcing her win. However, following that, there is a different clip of Dixon saying the n-word.
This TikTok clip also shows Dixon and a girl lip-syncing to this sound in the background: “I’m Amber. I only love men when they have money and big c***s.”
“I screamed. This happened 2 days ago,” the caption reads, in reference to Dixon receiving her title.
The TikTok video has over 9.1m views, so far, with viewers in the comments emphasising how inappropriate it was for Dixon to say the n-word.
“Literally why is everyone acting like it’s okay that she said a literal slur?” one person wrote, while another said: “Y’all it’s about her having to hold up a very big reputation and title and her doing the complete opposite.”
Multiple TikTok users expressed that now that this clip has been resurfaced, Dixon’s title should be revoked.
“As a former Pagent girl…her crown should be given to the first runner up,” one viewer wrote.
“Literally take her crown back,” a TikTok user commented.
Many viewers specifically tagged @missteenusa’s TikTok account in the comments, one of which said: “so y’all just be letting anyone be miss teen.”
Others agreed that there should be some form of consequences that Dixon should face for saying the n-word.
“Pretty privilege!! [Dixon’s] getting no punishment for doing that,” a viewer wrote, while another said: “Just because she said it years ago, doesn’t make it okay. She needs to know that her actions have consequences.”
In another TikTok video, @juliuspleazerfanaccount shared broadcast footage from KIRO 7 discussing Dixon, which included third runner-up Hannah Merrit’s thoughts about this incident.
“As an African-American woman who’s walked that stage four times and has the weight of so many little girls on my shoulders, to know that Kate, who will never understand that, won, it’s just really tiring,” Merritt said.
Speaking to FOX 13, Dixon shared her response to the criticism she’s received from this clip, along with details about when it was filmed.
She said that it was from three years ago, and she was in a car with upperclassmen, who pressured her into saying the n-word.
“They coerced me into saying a racial slur. I told them ‘no, I don’t want to say that,” she said. ”I know that it’s not appropriate. And they told me ‘you have a free pass just this one time, it would be funny.’ So I decided, after much persuasion, I said the word that they wanted me to say and without my knowledge I was recorded.”
The clip was posted online a week after it was filmed. As a result at the time, Dixon publicly apologised, but said she was still bullied afterward. She claimed that every time she achieved something, the video ends up resurfacing.
However, she told FOX 13 that she still wants to take this situation as a learning opportunity and issued another apology.
“Honestly having gone through this experience, I feel like you don’t realize the true meaning of how something can affect you that’s posted online until you’re caught in a situation like mine,” she explained. “Where something negative from your past, because it being on social media, comes to resurface again.
“I think most of all that if they feel offended by this that I am very deeply sorry, that I have learned my lesson and I have not used that word to this day,” she continued. “I have not used that word.”
FOX 13 also spoke to the executive producer of Pageants Northwest, the agency that manages Miss Washington Teen USA. They noted that they knew about Dixon’s video in October 2020, and spoke with Dixon and her family about it. The agency still decided to let her compete, saying that the pageant’s goal is to encourage people “to be the best versions of themselves.”
The Independent has reached out to Dixon and the Miss Washington Teen USA pageant for comment.
