A Miss New Jersey contestant on stage at the competition railed against an “epidemic of censorship and entitlement” taking over school campuses — claiming that the words, “I’m offended,” are being used to silence students and fire professors.
Beauty queen Justine Murray delivered the fiery speech blasting censorship last week during the pageant at Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City.
“Our generation is experiencing an epidemic of censorship and entitlement. And it’s because our professors and our celebrities are teaching students to be narcissists, to believe that any of you that differs from their own is an existential threat,” she said in a video posted to Twitter of the competition.
“And this is what I experienced on my own campus with censorship to the point where people believe that speech is violence so that they can threaten other people with violence, simply because they disagree with them.”
Murray — who is the reigning Miss Northern Highlands — also championed the importance of the First Amendment, which protects free speech.
“It is listed first under the Bill of Rights for a reason. Without it, all other liberties crumble. But today, we’re watching free speech get hammered to the ground by the very institutions that are supposed to promote diversity of thoughts,” she said.
“The mere words ‘I’m offended’ are now being used as an excuse to silence students, fire professors and cancel people simply because they do not know the popular line of thought,” she continued.
“And that’s what I experienced — an Orwellian phenomenon, dominating my own campus to the point where it got borderline violent.”
Murray — who described herself on Twitter with the hashtag, #AntiPCPageantQueen — vowed to empower women to speak out about what they believe in if crowned the winner of the competition.
“Through the Miss America organization, I will promote Miss New Jersey, as Miss New Jersey, by empowering the voices of young women who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in and become a voice to be reckoned with,” she said.
Murray, however, didn’t place in the pageant — with the honor going Saturday night to Miss Seashore Line Alyssa Sullivan, NJ.com reported.
“I didn’t win. I didn’t even place. But I wouldn’t have changed a single word,” Murray wrote on Twitter.