🗑Afro-Caribbean scholar turns out to be White, Rachel Dolezal wonders what the big deal is
If you’ve spent the last few days offline, you’ve likely missed the sizzling cocktail of fuckery known as the Jess La Bombalera situation. Meet Jessica A. Krug, an associate professor of history at George Washington University; Krug specializes in African and diasporic politics and ideas, and for years has been vocal on social media and in activism as a Black woman. Or possibly Colombian. Or perhaps Afro-Latinx. Point is, last week she admitted that she was actually a White woman from Kansas City. To those outside the world of academia—that is, 99% of people—the obvious question was HOW HAD NO ONE CAUGHT ON TO THIS? Whether deploying a hilariously inconsistent faux-Nuyorican accent, teaching struggle salsa dancing, or calling herself “an unrepentant and unreformed child of the hood,” everything about Krug smacked of trying way way way way too hard in that way that only White people can. (Also, the fact that she came clean at all seemed to be because people had sniffed out the charade.) Point is, with the post-summer days getting noticeably shorter, we need to bask in whatever light we can find—and nothing warms the soul quite like a good White People Blackfishing situation. Here’s to you, Jessica Krug; since you’re likely on the cusp of a career move, we’d like to suggest something a little more fitting for someone as amateurishly deceptive as you. How does “White House press secretary for the next few months” strike you? (New York Times)
🗑“Vandals did it,” Nebraska man says of meticulously painted racial slur on his pickup
Over the weekend, ex-NBA sharpshooter Rex Chapman retweeted an image of a pickup truck whose rear windshield was emblazoned with what apparently passes for fine art among racists: “FUCK THE N*****S,” painted in red, white, and blue, with “TRUMP 2020” below it in all white (of course). Now, a little-known thing about the backs of cars is that that’s where the license plate is—so it didn’t take long for folks to figure out who the guy was and who he worked for. When reporters contacted the genius, he claimed that vandals had painted the message on his truck while it was parked at the mall. Plausible, right? Well, except for the fact that the theoretical vandals would have carried three cans of paint around with them. Oh, and the fact that witnesses saw him drive into the parking lot with the message already there. “I’m not a racist,” he told the reporter. “All lives matter.” That. Ain’t. It. Chief. (Omaha World Herald)
🗑Texas assistant attorney general forgets the “attorney” part of his name, decides he’s just generally awful
For the past three years and change, Nick Moutos has been working in the criminal prosecutions division of the Texas Office of the Attorney General. He’s also been clearly been doing exercises to keep his Twitter fingers flexible, judging from the way he’s been pushing QAnon conspiracies and Covid denials, hashtagging “#islamisavirus,” calling trans people “an abomination,” and saying civil war is coming. Granted, not all of that falls squarely under the umbrella of Explicitly Racist, but given that he’s already ticked off islamophobia and calling for civil war—not to mention parroting out the old truther canard that Michelle Obama is a man—he’s definitely trying to shoulder his way in under that umbrella. And given all that, it may not surprise you that Nick Moutos is no longer employed by the Texas Office of the Attorney General. Don’t worry, ol’ Nick Moutos will land on his feet—he’s in Texas, after all, where election officials post MLK tweets with images of bananas. (Media Matters)