America 1982-Chapter 295 - 15: Reveal miracles among the enemies, manifest special abilities in the land of Han, so that the elect may praise the name of God.
New York, Brooklyn, Merlin Apartment Building.
The Merlin Apartment Building was a complex of small, single apartments, suitable for young people who came to the big city of New York harboring the American Dream and needed a temporary place to stay.
Vanessa Williams, wearing an apron and cleaning gloves, was on her knees scrubbing the floor, and soon, the small apartment, windows included, was spotless. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
In reality, her home was in New York, or rather, her parents’ home was in New York—a two-story villa with a music practice room and a gym converted from a basement. Compared to this old forty-square-meter apartment, located near a subway station where one could clearly feel every train passing through the underground tunnels, it was like the difference between heaven and hell.
But now, she had no desire whatsoever to go back and live with her parents, even though they had never blamed her for avoiding bankruptcy by paying nearly a million dollars in compensation for her.
After cleaning the floor, she stood up and caught her breath, then walked over to the framed photo hanging on the living room wall and earnestly admired the photograph that had made her infamous.
This photograph that caused her to lose all her honors was actually very delicately composed. In the backlight of the setting sun, she stood naked atop Mount Chisico, like an angel making its first descent into the world.
There was no taste of obscenity in the entire composition, and because of the backlight, she appeared more like a black silhouette. Without close observation, it was impossible to notice her bare state.
It was a part-time job she had taken just after starting university. A photographer named Tommy needed a model to shoot a series of photos to promote the local landscape of Mount Chisico in New York. She remembered the photographer saying he hoped to capture the freedom of the town through the image of a woman on top of the mountain, with the sunset and nature, liberated from all constraints.
After signing the model release form for such a series, totaling thirteen photos, she received two thousand US dollars in compensation from the photographer.
Later, she increasingly shone at college, participated in beauty pageants, and, cutting through the competition, first became Miss Syracuse and then won the title of Miss New York, eventually succeeding as the first African-American Miss America.
In the winter of 1983, the names of two young people sparkled on newspapers and TV screens—one male, one female; one black, one white—telling all Americans to believe in miracles, that the American dream would ultimately come true.
She was that lucky African-American girl, the newly crowned Miss America in 1984, Vanessa Williams.
Only the story that followed seemed to turn into a nightmare. First, many white people could not accept that this beauty pageant, which began in 1920, would have an African-American woman represent the image of American women. They could tolerate African-American women entering the competition but not representing America.
So, many white extremists and racists sent bullets to her by mail and threatening letters to her family, demanding she give up her title.
She bravely stood on a TV interview show and said she would definitely not be scared off. She wanted to use herself to change everyone’s perception of African-Americans, to tell the world that not only white women are beautiful but African-American women too.
Then what happened next was all hearsay to her. Some tabloids insisted that the betting lines Las Vegas casinos had set for the beauty pageant went awry because she, an African-American, had won, causing many high rollers to suffer heavy losses. As a result, they opened another bet that she could not complete her one-year term as Miss America without leaving the position in disgrace.
She thought it was a rumor that could be ignored, but then realized she was too young and naive, seeing only the good side of the world.
Soon after, Penthouse published that series of art photos she had once shot. If it were only the artistic silhouettes from before, Vanessa would not have minded, since she was indeed exposed during the shoot, but because of the lighting, it was not really revealing, and the important parts showed no exposure.
Unfortunately, she underestimated the shamelessness of Penthouse magazine. The magazine increased the exposure of the photos, and what was originally just an artistic silhouette in the magazine turned into explicit, large-scale photographs, leaving nothing in the images of her body to the imagination of the readers.
The Miss America who should have been beautiful, flawless, and the epitome of American female imagery had her large-scale photos exposed and published in Penthouse, which nobody could accept.
Almost instantly, she went from America’s darling, envied by everyone, to America’s jezebel, scorned by all.
The Cinderella tale of the American dream had turned into an American nightmare.
Those high-profile African-American compatriots who had previously praised her, rushed to become her friends, and invited her to various upper-class events, turned their backs on her the moment they saw her photos in Penthouse. They accused her of tarnishing the reputation of African-American women and providing whites with another excuse to criticize African-Americans for a lack of self-respect.
The whites who were already resentful of an African-American woman winning the crown of Miss America found even more reason to mock her, calling her a shameless black woman who had no right to represent America, only making the world see American women as loose and lacking self-respect.
