Miss Michigan Calls Out Flint Water Crisis

The contestant used her air time on the Miss America pageant to make an important statement.

At the televised Miss America pageant on Sunday, Miss Michigan, Emily Sioma, used her introduction to shed light on an important issue: the Flint water crisis.

Sioma expressed her concern that though Michigan is a state containing a large percentage of the fresh water in the U.S., the town of Flint has lacked clean water since the year 2014.

Miss Michigan Emily Sioma emphasizing the Flint Water crisis.

“I’m from the state with 84% of the U.S.’s fresh water, but none for its residents to drink.” pic.twitter.com/S2IzKvgAig

— Shaun King (@shaunking) September 10, 2018

While Miss Michigan ultimately did not make it to Top 15 in the competition, her statement made a huge impact across the Internet.

Miss Michigan needs to win the 2019 Miss America Pageant simply for stating there still isn’t any clean water during her introduction! #Michigan #MissAmerica 💕

— SundaeCouture™ (@SundaeCouture) September 10, 2018

Miss Michigan using her 10 second intro to speak on flints water crisis instead of herself is truly using her platform for her state 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

— Jesse Keener (@swaggirljesse) September 10, 2018

Sioma has also started a sexual assault awareness campaign as part of her social outreach initiative for the competition. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

I want to exist in a world free of fear. Free of the fear of walking home alone at night, of an unattended drink, of an abusers actions going unpunished. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and I wear teal proudly to show that I am both a survivor and an ally. Thank you, Rach, for being my marching buddy! 📸 @mlivenews #takebackthenight #saam #ibelieveyou

A post shared by Emily Sioma (@missshoreline) on Apr 7, 2018 at 10:08am PDT

Emily Sioma has proven she is committed to bringing visibility to important social issues, and spreading her message on such a large platform holds the potential to affect lasting change.