(AP-  AJC/Cynthia Tucker) -- The newly-crowned campus queen was upset that she drew some jeers from the crowd at a college football game, as well as some disparaging comments in the blogosphere, when she and her court were introduced on Oct. 10. So she wrote an open letter to President Obama and posted it online.

“I feel as though you could relate to my situation. I am hoping that perhaps you would be able to make an appearance to my campus, Hampton University, so that my fellow Hamptonians can stop focusing so much on the color of my skin. . .”

(UPH - -What??  C'mon Man!  I mean lady!)

Oops. That’s when things got, ah, ugly. Nikole Churchill had inadvertently struck a match to the tinderbox of race, culture and traditional beauty standards, fueling a full-fledged row over her status as the first non-black homecoming queen at Hampton University, a storied historically black institution.

While some students admitted a preference for a black queen, others thought the student body should elect the homecoming court. (The pageant judges included two regulars from the professional pageant circuit, two faculty members and a local business executive.) Several students said they were upset by Churchill’s public letter, which they claimed misrepresented Hampton.

“. . .To issue a blanket statement like that? It just really put the university in a negative light,” student body president Matthew Washington told The Washington Post.

At 22, Churchill — who has a white mother and an Asian father —  still has a couple of things to learn. One is this: She shouldn’t pay attention to the negative comments of a few, especially  anonymous taunts in the blogosphere. Accomplishment always draws detractors.

Another is this: As a visible representative of a historically black college, she serves as yet another reminder of  the dramatic cultural and social changes this country has undergone in a couple of generations. She’s too young to appreciate this, but her selection as Hampton’s homecoming queen would have been unimaginable 25 years ago.

Because mainstream American culture has traditionally shut black Americans out of so many of its prizes, small and large, black institutions have, in the past, jealously guarded their awards as honors set aside for black recipients. Churchill’s crown, then, is a symbol, not only of broad cultural change but also of  the growing confidence many black institutions have about their place in a  racially-diverse country.

(UPH -- Is this still relevant?  You tell me.)

(A quibble: While Churchill’s crown is a symbol of racial progress, it is also a reminder that certain hoary old gender stereotypes remain in place. Though Hampton’s contest is officially labelled a “scholarship” pageant, contestants still parade around in swim suits.)

Another venerable black institution, Atlanta’s Morehouse College, marked a similar milestone in 2008, when the college named graduating senior Joshua Packwood its first white valedictorian. He was happily accepted by students at all-male Morehouse — which may indicate that brainpower is a less controversial subject in our culture than beauty standards.

(UPH -- I don't think the above example compares to a pageant....  Valedictorians are NOT chosen by judges for the most part.)

Both Hampton and Morehouse are among those historical black colleges that have had some success recruiting beyond their traditional student base . That’s a smart survival strategy; it’s also a message about their acceptance of cultural change.

With Hampton’s homecoming game scheduled for Saturday (Oct. 24), campus public relations officials report that the news media have exaggerated the reaction to Churchill and that students are preoccupied with the usual concerns — classes, tests and homecoming weekend festivities.

 
(UPH -- Ok just maybe the one in the middle is making a face but, I can't tell with the other ones.  But, I agree that the media is stretching this all that they can.  Here is their chance at reverse discrimination again.)

For her part, Churchill, a nursing major who attends the satellite campus in Virginia Beach, has posted another online letter, this time apologizing for the plea to the president.

“I have now come to regret writing this letter and disappointing the very students that I now represent. I took the comments of a few and blew it out of proportion. In reality, all comments that have been directed towards me and the reception I received . . . were genuinely supportive,” she wrote.

(UPH -- What was she thinking by writing a letter to President Obama??  I think he's done with poking his nose into social happenings for awhile.)

The controversy, while undoubtedly uncomfortable for her, may prove as helpful as any of her college experiences. She is learning to navigate racially-charged territory without losing her head — or her crown.

(UPH) -- I don't really care who won but, she could have kept that letter to herself.  But, I would like to say congrats to Ms Churchill.   Does it really matter who wins, as long as you are a current student and possess all of the credentials needed to win the pageant.  Are you bothered that she is not black??