As most mornings usually go for me, I log into Instagram and scroll through my feed. Most of the time, I just double tap the photos of tattooed girls I like and the uncommonly few pet photos I adore, then get my day on the way. Sometimes, unfortunately, I come across certain news’ bits and click the comment icon because I am super curious as to the amount of toxicity humanity can dish out for whatever personal vendetta these people may have.
In particular, I came across this news bit about a woman named Ellie Kemper. I didn’t even know about this person, until I came across this post.
Basically, to cut a long story short, in 1999, when she was 19, she attended a ball which in 1865, was founded by a Confederate officer, and the organization in which hosts the ball she attended, were aggressively hostile against Jews and Blacks through the 1970’s. Mind you, the organization has evolved over the years and by the 1990’s, it expanded its member base beyond just white people. Ellie Kemper attended this ball and was crowned queen in 1999. This was 23 years ago. While at 19, many people assume she should have known that the ball has racist ties, I must say that when I was 19, I was also ignorant of many things. Just because someone is 18 or 19 and is considered an adult by definition of the law, it doesn’t mean suddenly being an adult makes one knowledgeable of everything under the sun. Though it’s clear Ellie Kemper was holding herself accountable, and even clearly stated that there should be no excuse for the ignorance she had when she was 19 coinciding the ball’s racist past, unfortunately, she still received hateful comments from very narrow minded people. On the Instagram post, I came across a huge amount of very hateful people who commented that she only apologized, because she was caught. Really? What was she caught doing exactly?
Here are the facts:
- She was 19 in 1999. She was a teenager, barely an adult by definition of the law.
- She attended the ball and was crowned Veiled Queen.
So what was it that she was caught with? Did she engage in the lynching of a Black person as an initiation ritual to become the ball’s Queen? Did she have to burn down a church run by Black people while waving the Confederate flag?
Evidently, none of those things occurred. She was literally ‘caught’ attending a ball. That’s it.
The problem with all of this is that someone took this little piece of information from 23 years ago, then blew it up out of proportion on social media to fan the flames of racism and it worked. Ellie Kemper was in a lose-lose situation. If she hadn’t respond, some Black people would be up in arms over her lack of a response and mark her as a racist bitch that needs to be cancelled. If she did respond, which she did, those same Black people would call her out for being insincere. She was a scapegoat, a means to an end, to be used as fuel to an already volatile state of affairs in the USA. This is quite apparent with the vitriol in the comment section of this Instagram post.
The following are a few screenshots of comment threads I was a part of. Note in particular Suddenly.CJ’s responses.
Suddenly.CJ insists that Ellie Kemper should have known better at age 19 that racism is bad, that the ball has racist ties, that anything Ellie says now is just trying to get out of a bad situation, that of course, it’s all an insincere publicity stunt. The irony here is that Suddenly.CJ seems to be in her early to mid 20’s, and obviously doesn’t know any better at the age she is. As you can clearly see from the screenshots, Suddenly.CJ has no issues expressing her own racism towards Vietnamese people, painting Vietnamese people in broad strokes.
In short, Suddenly.CJ and people like her aren’t interested in seeking solutions to the racism in the USA. They aren’t interested in educating the root of the problem. They are only interested in perpetuating victimhood and that Black people are the only ones relevant in receiving apologies from white people. What further solidifies this point of view, is that in one of the screenshots above, she argued with another Black person who disagreed with her view, then decided that the opposing view is irrelevant because that other Black person must like Ellie Kemper. She also argued with the Jewish person that because she is white, her views are irrelevant. She argued with me that I have no backbone and kiss white’s peoples’ asses, even though I calmly without any sarcasm, dismantled her perspectives through peace and mediation. The Black person, the Jewish person, and me are all people from minorities that were murdered by white people in the KKK. It’s incredible how she dismisses us, because we disagree with her rhetoric, even though she preaches that Ellie Kemper at 19, should have known better. So why doesn’t Suddenly.CJ know any better?
Further reading: The Forgotten History of the Western Klan