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Spring 2004 | Vol. 12, No. 1
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| Nevada Knockout |
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| Alumna’s risky pageant performance makes her the first Nevadan to win the Miss Black USA crown. | ||
| By Laurel Fruth
Photo by Aaron Mayes | ||
“I definitely feel the weight of this crown,” the Reno native says. “I think this says to the rest of the country that Nevada has so much to offer, and I feel that I need to pave the way for Nevadans.We are a force to be reckoned with and I’m proud to carry that banner." Muto will carry that banner to the rest of the country as she embarks on a 100-city speaking tour this year. The tour, along with appearances at numerous charity and civic events, comes with the crown and other prizes, one of which is a full scholarship to a university of her choice. Muto plans to use the scholarship to attend graduate school at UNLV after her reign ends. But for now, she’s concentrating on the 100 city speaking tour and her platform message. “I have so many causes that I want to advocate,” Muto says. “I’d like to develop a non-profit organization that provides accessible and affordable after-school activities for children. I want to help at-risk children stay off drugs and out of trouble. And I also want to work with children who have been abused, neglected, abandoned, or placed in the foster care system.” Muto knows that some may dismiss her platform as just typical beauty queen rhetoric. But she says her desire to serve as an advocate for children comes from her own life experiences, not from a need to impress judges. Abandoned at the Reno airport when she was just 10 days old, Muto is well aware that her life could have turned out much differently than it has. “The two pilots who found me turned me over to Children’s Protective Services, and I was placed in foster care,” Muto says. “But I was lucky. I was placed with my parents Tom and Catherine Muto, who were foster parents at that time. They adopted me, loved me, and raised me.” Muto based the powerful monologue she presented for the talent portion of the pageant on her own experience as an abandoned child transformed by loving parents and on the story of child abuse victim Antwone Fisher. She had only a few days to write and practice the speech before delivering it before a packed auditorium. The lack of preparation time, however, was not her greatest concern; she was apprehensive about how her message would be received. “I knew I was going to say that my black parents abandoned me and my white parents came and saved me,” Muto says, “so I didn’t think I had a chance at winning the Miss Black USA crown.” With that in mind, she went for broke. Her risky performance earned the respect of the judges and her fellow contestants. “After my monologue, a number of women approached me and shared their stories with me. I realized that we all had taken different paths to get where we were and that, for many, the path had not been easy. Yet here we were strong, talented and intelligent women with so much to offer the world.” Muto admits that affection for fellow contestants is something that pageant participants often proclaim but seldom feel. As first runner-up two years in a row in the Miss Nevada pageant, Muto says she is very familiar with the intensity that most contestants bring to such contests. The Miss Black USA pageant is different, she says, because judges place less emphasis on appearance and more on the goals and aspirations of the contestants. “In other pageants, I never would have seen a heavier girl or a girl with short hair. These women were beautiful,” Muto says. “The Miss Black USA pageant is all about minority women who are politically astute and spiritually centered, and these values are reflected in all of the contestants. The beauty of the contestants radiated from the inside out.” Muto was so impressed by the women she met that she is forming a coalition with other contestants so they can present a united front on issues affecting African American and other minority women. “The best thing about having a national title is that now people will listen to what I have to say,”Muto laughs. Once her reign has ended,Muto will return to UNLV to pursue a graduate degree in political science or an MBA. She didn’t even consider another university and credits UNLV with helping her define what she has become. “I was really selfish when I entered college,”Muto says. “I was only interested in careers that would make me a lot of money and bring me a lot of prestige. But, as I learned more about myself, I discovered that I really do want to make a difference in She plans to become active in politics and hopes one day to run for public office. But first she wants to ensure that her year in the spotlight is meaningful and productive. She says she’ll work hard to represent her state and her school — but she won’t stop being Elizabeth.When asked to speak at a charity fun run to support Adoption Awareness, Muto says she’d love to speak as long as she could also actually run the 5K event. “I can give a speech in shorts and a T-shirt,” she proclaims in her most dignified and queenly voice. | ||
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