My mother went to college at UC Berkeley. She voted Democratic in every election, and growing up she presented the political world around us as a Manichaean split between good (JFK and MLK) and evil (Nixon). I can remember her attending church rallies where she sang, “We Shall Overcome” with real emotion in her voice.…

It amazes me that anyone would be surprised to find out that the mob was made up of people of privilege. Your stereotypical poor white Trump supporter who lives in the sticks doesn’t have the means to travel to DC in the middle of the work week. The Trumper who ate a bullet (not mentioning her name because fuck her)…

“News articles from the past five years depicting the plight of the down-and-out Southerner with no recourse but Trump are bullshit. They’re enjoying this. It’s the day they’ve been waiting for.”

I can’t help but notice how she described herself as a 22 year old girl but calls a 14 year old boy a “guy”. Black children are often automatically aged up to make them appear more threatening and to give people an excuse to disrespect, harass and assault them. She also refers to them as “the son” and his father as…

What made The Jerk funny was the obvious absurdity of Steve Martin’s character claiming to be a “poor black child” when he was obviously white. Everyone in the audience is supposed to take it as self-evidently absurd that a white boy would claim blackness just because he happened to be raised by a black family.

I think the response of her actual Latinx community is the most important piece. From the quotes here, they do not appear to agree with you or her that she deserved to land high profile interviews and jobs with Latinx led organizations. IMO it’s not that different from the filmmaker who was recently exposed for…

No you fucking can’t claim the ethnicity of the people that raised you unless you actually are that fucking ethnicity.

You are asking the wrong question. It does not matter who raised her or how much exposure she has to a culture. If I was raised by Korean parents I would still be Latinx not Asian. If I lived in Nigeria for 20 years, I could eventually be a Nigerian citizen, but ethnically I would still be Latinx. No matter how many…

“[Ponsetto] is of Puerto Rican and Vietnamese descent and does not identify as white.”

It doesn't matter who your mom shacks up with.  If you're white, you're white. 

So as a non-Asian person, by that logic, if my stepfather is Korean does that mean I can all of a sudden claim that culture?

Non-threatening colour too!

I’m white and I definitely can’t speak for Indigenous people, but here’s some information that I think will help you contextualize what you’re talking about.

Some family members having black hair, weak beards and dark skin does not make you Indigenous...even having a far distant ancestor who was Indigenous does not give you the right to go around claiming that identity because it makes your family feel special or exotic. If you want to do things right, it’s not that hard…

White people claiming indigenous backgrounds after genociding them because it got romanticized decades after the genocide is always wrong, and you should be more curious about where you ACTUALLY come from if you actually care about your heritage. But oppressors stealing the identity of the oppressed is always fucked…

There are echoes of Elizabeth Warren’s situation here. Latimer has a French Canadian ancestor who lived near an Indigenous community and confused that with membership in that nation. Because Metis nations have French ancestors and most French Canadians can trace a single Indigenous ancestor from the 17th century, ther…

It’s almost as if addiction doesn’t make you do or say terrible things if you're not already a terrible person. 

This is one of my few non-snarky posts. I only wish the best for John Mullaney. Recovery is HARD. I hope he has a good support system.

This was my favorite take on twitter when the whole thing broke

That whole Elle article was just a list of red flags and him priming her to accept being manipulated by him.