The newest Miss America was crowned Sept. 15. She performed in front of the millions watching in person and at home, glistening beautifully under the dazzling beams of a thousand fluorescent lights. Her answer was carefully thought-out; her yellow evening gown tastefully chosen. It was business as usual in the pageant world.

Only this time, Miss America has brown skin.

Nina Davuluri, Miss America 2014, is the first winner in the history of the contest to be of Indian descent. This is a milestone achievement for the organization (though they seem fairly behind to me); she will be the first Indian-American to receive the full Miss America scholarship — and the first to travel 20,000 miles a month on a year-long speaking tour of the country with the organization.

Her platform? Celebrating diversity through cultural competency.

And up from the depths of Twitter came posts like these:

“Miss America? You mean Miss 7-11.”

“I swear I’m not racist, but this is America”

“9/11 was 4 days ago and she gets Miss America?”

And my personal favorite:

“Man our president nor our new Miss America isn’t even American I’m sorry but Miss Kansas I salute you your the real American”

What’s happening here? And I’m not referring to the grammar.

Since when did nonwhite start meaning non-American?

There were 705 tweets responding to Davuluri’s win referring to her as “Miss Terrorist,” simply because they assumed she was of Arab descent.

She’s not.

Although both of her parents are from India, Davuluri was born in Syracuse, N.Y. She has lived in the United States her entire life.

But even if she were of Arab descent — even if her parents were born in Saudi Arabia or Jordan or Iraq — does it matter? She’s an American, regardless of her ethnic background.

And, for the record, being from the same hemisphere as Osama bin Ladin doesn’t automatically make you a Muslim extremist, and based on her appearance in the swimsuit portion, we can assume she’s not.

There is another argument entirely surrounding the Miss America contest: Can we please quit being racist while we objectify women? However, it really doesn’t matter where her parents are from; every citizen of the United States should be able to walk across a stage in a leopard bikini knowing she won’t be criticized for not being “American enough.”

Can we quantify the ‘amount of American’ we are?

There’s nothing less “American” than telling a fellow citizen that they aren’t authentic enough — or worthy enough — to enjoy the same freedoms, rights and protections as others. The fact that we’re seeing tweets and Facebook posts like these when we live in a country founded on the basis of freedom from oppression and intolerance is deplorable.

Encountering this kind of brazen racism, and finding out that it’s actually happening right outside our doors is quite shocking; I never would have expected a young man to confront my friend on the street outside my apartment saying, “Go back to Asia, f–k-bag.” But two days ago, it happened. My friend is an American; he’s lived in Ames his entire life.

And I’m sure Marc Anthony would agree. When the New York City-born singer performed “God Bless America” at the 2013 MLB All-Star game in July, the Twitter-verse blew up. Hundreds of tweets rolled in, attacking Anthony’s dark skin and Latino heritage. For example:

“Why is Mark Anthony singing ‘God Bless America’? He’s not even American. Shoulda got someone sweet like Ke$ha.”

It’s racist, it’s ignorant and it’s just plain wrong.

As Americans, we need to represent our country with a little more pride. Because being an American doesn’t mean having a certain religion or dancing a specific type of dance. Being an American doesn’t mean being white.

Being an American is about being a citizen of the United States, where we have the freedom to express ourselves and our unique ethnic backgrounds and cultures. Being an American means being free to live our lives without someone telling us that we aren’t equal because of the color of our skin or the country our parents are from.

Being an American means rising above the intolerance of others.