Karlie Hay

Miss Teen USA Karlie Hay can keep her crown after her racist tweets were exposed on social media within hours of winning her title.

The 18-year-old Texas native littered her Twitter.com timeline with racist tweets in 2013 to 2014, on al old account.

The former Miss Texas Teen tweeted, “I know I’m a comedian nigger,” “don’t threaten me I will wrap your house nigger,” and “I don’t have your number, nigger.”

“I admit that I have used language publicly in the past which I am not proud of and that there is no excuse for,” Hay tweeted early Sunday.

She blamed “personal struggles,” and promised to become a “better person” through diversity education.

After a brief investigation, pageant officials closed the case and cleared Hay to keep her crown.

“The language Karlie Hay used is unacceptable at any age and in no way reflects the values of The Miss Universe Organization,” a pageant official wrote in a statement to the NY Daily News. “As Karlie stated, she was in a different place in her life and made a serious mistake she regrets and for which she sincerely apologizes”.

Critics note that Hay didn’t even bother to stylize the racist slur by writing “nigga”.

Hay’s peers in the pageant world criticized her and the pageant on Twitter.com and in the media.

“The first thing a director will ask you is if you have anything out on the internet that will come back to bite you,” Miss Long Island 2017 Ashley Alese Edwards told The NY Daily News. “It’s really embarrassing for her and the pageant.”

Former Miss Teen USA Kamie Crawford, who is black, chastised Hay for being ignorant about her social media footprint.

“If u win any pageant – first things first. Clean up ur page,” Crawford tweeted. “Cus if ur under 21 u shouldn’t b drinking & if ur WHITE the n word ain’t yo word!”

And Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Chrissy Teigen mocked the pageant’s final five contestants, writing, “Wow how can we choose from such a diverse bunch.”

Hay’s old Twitter account has since been made private. But her racist tweets live on in perpetuity.

Karlie Hay