Yesterday Miss Universe Ivory Coast, Olivia Yace landed in Belize. She was one of the top five finishers in the recent Miss Universe pageant and she's here to visit Miss Universe Belize Isabella Zabaneh, whom she befriended at the pageant.
After they posted an exuberant selfie, the image was picked up by a local news site, where a commenter identified as tour guide Alex Mes referred to Yacé using a racially derogatory term.
The comment quickly stirred outrage on social media getting a rise out of many persons.
At a media session this morning, we asked Yace alongside Miss Universe Belize Isabella Zabaneh how they felt about the comment, and the public outrage:
Isabella Zabaneh, Miss Universe Belize
"Belize is a melting pot and in my final answer on the Miss Universe Belize stage I literally said we need to let that pot melt. I wasn't even angry. It was simply disappointment, especially coming from a tour guide. And what people did not realize is while it was racist towards one of us, it was racist towards the both of us. I was identified as a tourist and I won't even mention what she was identified as. And just the frustration of knowing that somebody in Belize who I have represented would say such a thing was a big frustration and disappointment for me, especially since I've spoken and been so vocal about the issue before."
Olivia Yace, Miss Universe Cote d'Ivoire
"There's always gonna be hate or people that have negative things to say about you and that's also something that I always wanna teach the young girls that despite what life throws at you, you have to keep going, you have to keep seeing the positive side of things and the bright side of things and understand that sometimes people project and that's okay and that's not something that you have to put on yourself but instead give love back, I'm a Christian so I do believe in giving grace to people but again the most important is to give love back and life continues regardless."
Reporter
"How much of a bad impression has this left on you if any at all?"
Olivia Yace, Miss Universe Cote d'Ivoire
"Not at all not at all you know like I said I love Belize I've had an amazing welcome the people here are so nice so you can't base an experience on one person or on one bad thing that happened. So I'm still very happy to be here and I'm still very excited."
