Kim K. Put Y'all On

Thanks to the journalist in me, one of the first things I do when there's down time at work is read the news. This morning I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Miss Michigan was crowned Miss USA (because Miss Michigan never wins the whole shebang!), but I was even more surprised to learn that Miss USA is a woman of Lebanese descent.

Rima Fakih is the first Arab-American and first Muslim to be crowned Miss USA. I read a statistic that Dearborn, Mich. has the highest concentration of Arabs in America, so it's not unusual for me to see people who look like the lovely Ms. Fakih all the time. I do think, however, that it took the popularity of someone like Kim Kardashian, to shine the national spotlight on the beauty of Arab-American woman, and despite what you might say, I know we can call that a contributing factor in Rima's win last night. (I don't understand the popularity of the Kardashi-shones, but they are, perhaps unintentionally, representatives for their ethnicity, which is a minority that we don't always see in the mainstream.)

Let's give girlfriend all the credit she is due, though. She has a degree in economics and business management and works in marketing for the Detroit Medical Center. I didn't go research her whole life story, but I did see this quote that I liked a lot:

"It's beauty that captures your attention, personality which captures your heart."