On Sunday’s Miss America pageant, the competition was fierce as always; the women were beautiful, the talent was ever so present, and all fifty competitors hoped they would get to wear the precious crown and sash that came with winning the title.

At the end, Miss New York, contestant Nina Davuluri took the well-deserved victory home. If you want any further proof of this, look up the Bollywood-inspired dance routine she performed for the talent section of the pageant on YouTube.

Davuluri, who’s of Indian descent, yet born in the United States, embraced her cultural roots and stole the show from any other competitor that had graced the stage. Although, some of the audience members that watched the televised broadcast of the show from the comfort of their homes were not pleased.

Social networks such as Twitter were bombarded with hate towards Davuluri, going from calling her a terrorist to making racist jokes about her employment.

Others related to the indignation of having an Indian-American win a pageant happening only days after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — how dare they? Unless my history books serve me wrong, Indians, let alone people of Indian descent born and raised in the United States, did most certainly not orchestrate said terrorist attacks.

The ignorance of the masses is getting too far. The double standard of discriminating and attacking Nina for winning Miss America for not being a “true American” while priding themselves on being “one-sixteenth Irish” needs to stop. In the short time I’ve been in the country, I have learned this basic concept: according to the Constitution, anyone born in the U.S. is an American.

It looks like the people making all of these hateful comments forgot about this simple lesson when taking it out on Davuluri. Not only is it disgusting to read some of these comments, but it is also shameful. Is this how we’re supposed to progress as a country?

Is this what the future of America is like? Terrible slippery slopes and hatred toward any American citizen whose complexion is not pearly white?

It is sad that once it’s on the Internet, it is with us forever, because the constant reminder of having read these ignorant comments is enough to make anyone want to turn a computer off forever.