NOBODY IS SAFE: Bethany Mandel on the Twitter mob descending on actress Elie Kemper:
For the last two days, actress Elie Kemper has been trending on Twitter, with the following explanation:
In 1999, actor Ellie Kemper was named the Queen of Love and Beauty at the Veiled Prophet Ball, a debutante ball held in St. Louis, Missouri, which was founded by wealthy White elites in 1878 and ’emphasized the existing power structure’, according to The Atlantic’s Scott Beauchamp
For this, she’s basically been crowned the KKK Queen by the social media site’s users:
Read the whole thing.
Following a series of protests about its exclusivity, the organization is said to have eventually diversified, allowing African-Americans to join in 1979.
Changes were also made to the name, with organizers doing away with the Veiled Prophet Ball in 1992, choosing the less mystifying Fair Saint Louis.
The ball continues to be held in December of each year, while the associated parade now takes place over the Fourth of July weekend.
Far removed from its beginnings, said to have included floats featuring racist caricatures of different ethnic groups, the fair now looks like any other celebration of all things Americana, including fireworks, abundant food and music.
But frame the story in the right way, and the feedback loop between the legacy media and the social media outrage mob finds another person to destroy.
Speaking of which: ‘Enjoy the libel suit:’ The AV Club reports that Ellie Kemper is ‘yet another rich white celebrity with a racist past.’
UPDATE: “Wait till Twitter finds out Ellie Kemper attended Princeton University, which didn’t have a black graduate until 1948,” Iowahawk tweets.