Everyone knows that some of the best text messages start with three small letters and a question mark, so when I got a “WTF?” text from a friend, I eagerly awaited the screenshot I knew was coming next.
In the text that went with the Instagram announcement, CAIR MN (the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota chapter) described Shaun King as a “civil rights icon” which is an accurate description… as long as you don’t believe that words have meaning.
As soon as I saw the announcement, which was for a fundraising event that I’d previously been invited to, my immediate reaction was “what on Earth are they thinking?” I knew that CAIR was going to be (rightfully) dragged for the decision to platform King and was not at all surprised to see an especially vocal online reaction from Black women in my community.
(If you aren’t familiar with King, a VERY QUICK Google will help you understand why this was a bad choice. The man is a grifter, an alleged thief of money he claimed to be raising for charity, and has tried to take credit for freeing Israeli hostages, despite those families saying he lied about his involvement. He was formerly a Christian pastor who converted to Islam literally like two weeks ago, a move his critics claim is designed to help him move on from grifting the BLM movement in the US to grifting the conflict between Israel and Palestine. He has made a lot of money off of figuring out how to insert himself in tragedy.)
As I watched the ENTIRELY PREDICTABLE backlash about this event begin, I couldn’t help but wonder how a well-established organization like CAIR got to this point. First, there is the slight weirdness about announcing the keynote speaker on Thursday for a major fundraising event on Sunday of the same week. I’ve planned enough events to know that locking down a keynote speaker is an important (and usually expensive) part of the event planning process. If they rushed into booking him, perhaps that could partially explain why they didn’t do a good job of vetting him … except that it takes all of five minutes to Google him and see that he has a terrible reputation. Was there nobody in the organization or on the planning committee that said “hey, this might not be a great idea?”
Seven hours after they announced him as keynote speaker, CAIR posted another announcement on Instagram that they were cancelling him as a keynote.
I suspect that they’ll likely still have to pay him, which could make this both expensive and embarrassing for this organization.
I struggle to be sympathetic to CAIR because this was such an unforced error. It would have been so easy to do due diligence and to weigh the cost/benefit ratio of choosing a controversial speaker and to have made the smarter choice. CAIR needs to do some thinking about how their process allowed this to happen and why either nobody spoke up or, if they did, why they weren’t listened to.
I generally don’t think of Kate Middleton when I’m thinking of Shaun King. However, the announcement yesterday of Kate’s cancer diagnosis and the subsequent online scolding that some hypocrites in the media are giving to everyone who has been participating in the “where’s Kate” discourse of the last few weeks also has me thinking about unforced errors.
Now, let me preface this by saying that, of course Kate Middleton deserves some measure of privacy to get the treatment she needs to recover. I don’t think anyone was happy to learn that she has cancer or was rooting for her to be sick1. I think at least some measure of the speculation was based out of a genuine (if maybe a little parasocial) concern for her wellbeing.
But I also think that the entire fervor over what was happening with Kate was both entirely predictable and an example of how the machinery behind the British royal family consistently fails to handle their PR shit in a way that suggests that they’ve learned anything in the last 40 years about how to engage with the public.
Side note: I don’t have particular feelings one way or the other about whether or not any country should have a monarchy. I do, however, think that if a country does have a monarchy that is financially supported by their citizens, there is a reasonable expectation that the lives of the royal family will exist for public consumption in a way that an ordinary citizen’s life wouldn’t be. To put it more plainly: Kate’s primary job is to be seen.
When Kate’s surgery and subsequent extended hospital stay were announced in January, the immediate public reaction was concern for her health. There was speculation, of course, about what was wrong with her since the wording of the announcement was intentionally vague, but the tenor of online conversation was decidedly in the “wow, hope she is okay” zone.
As the weeks turned to months and Kate wasn’t seen nor were any updates about her condition given, the level of public speculation grew. The rumors became rampant: Kate was getting eating disorder treatment, Kate and William were getting divorced, Kate was getting a BBL2, Kate was in a coma, and on and on. Then there was the altered photo and Kate’s apology post3 and the grainy photos/videos that claimed to show Kate out in public but that didn’t totally look like her …. it all built to a frenzied place. On Friday, Kate finally released the video where she updated the public about her health.
Kate is not allowed to be a person who is angry in public, but it’s hard not to pick up on a wee bit of a “leave me the fuck alone” vibe in the video. She’s absolutely correct that she deserved the time to tell her young children about her diagnosis first and the space to recover fully before returning to work.
What she doesn’t acknowledge (and perhaps doesn’t see) is that the she could have had all of that (without this whole “where is Kate” discourse) if the PR machine of the royal family had just handled this better. Their failure to recognized that, when it comes to Kate, silence and invisibility is fuel for public speculation is huge part of how all of this became the story that it is now.
If I was in charge of the royal family (a job I am wholly unqualified for, but just go with it), my first move would obviously be punting Prince Andrew into the sun. But after that, I would have suggested that they plan for a variety of low effort ways to give the public updates on Kate which would have kept the unchecked speculation at bay. An Instagram note in January, letting people know she was home from the hospital and thanking them for well wishes. A post in February (maybe a photo of her reading with one of the kids), letting people know she’s still healing but continues to be grateful for the support. A UK Mother’s Day post from William, talking about how great of a mom she is and how he’s glad she’s taking the time she needs to recover4. A picture of her at computer, noting that she’s starting to work from home again.
These wouldn’t have been complicated or required her to divulge her medical conditions, but I’m certain that something instead of months of nothing would have gone a long way to making her life easier or at least quieter. Again, it feels like an unforced error that whomever in her life was advising her or making choices about how to navigate this situation couldn’t predict what seems so obvious: you cannot have a literal princess, whose whole job is being a public persona, disappear for three months and not think people are going to collectively freak out a little bit. Whether that is fair or not5 doesn’t really matter. There is always a gap between how things could ideally work and the actual reality of what it means to have made the deal to become incredibly rich and famous as a member of the royal family.
I do hope, especially for the sake of her kids, that Kate gets better. I’m less optimistic that the British royal family will get better at figuring out how to manage their PR stuff, but who knows… maybe they’ll call me for that job eventually and I’ll turn it around for them.
(After the Andrew punting, of course)
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Now, on to some things I bought, made, read, or enjoyed this week!
I love a whackadoodle real estate listing. This one looks like if the Hobbits won the lottery, ditched the shire, and moved to Oregon
And this one is described as a “medieval castle” but was built in ….1990. But maybe some Michigan royalty will be into it?
I made oatmeal cookies this week and used my standby recipe, which I think is the best basic oatmeal cookie recipe ever. I make mine fancy by leaving out raisins and adding in butterscotch, chocolate, and/or white chocolate chips. So good.
I was gifted a new toothbrush this week and I’m sharing it here because I really like it6. Yes, I’m old enough now that I have very strong toothbrush feelings. It’s the Philips One in the mango color. I’m a sucker for a fun color and soft bristles.
I got my daughter a pair of Cloud Slides brand cushion slides for Christmas and they lasted less than two months before she tore them up. I was very pleased to see a MUCH cheaper dupe at Costco that also seems to be better made. These cute pink slides were less than $12 and I know she’ll wear them all summer.
Fun stories of Machiavellian triumphs at work.
I also think that the revelation of her illness doesn’t negate some of the other rumors that were circling… I think she is sick AND William is still probably a cheater.
I’m 99% nobody believed that one, but the image of ultra thin Kate emerging on Easter morning looking like a Kardashian was kind of amusing
Again - who the heck is advising them on this stuff? The whole photo thing was weird when it happened and weirder now that the story is “palace makes cancer patient take the blame for faked photo”
This would require that William not be a dick have some emotional intelligence, and I’m not fully convinced that is in his wheelhouse.
I’d make the argument that the royal family helped create this dynamic by having Kate trot out in front of the cameras with perfect hair and make up just hours after the birth of her children. No reasonable person would expect a new mother to be standing in heels in front of the world media seven hours after having a baby, but that is a while other conversation.
I’m not compensated for this, this is not an ad.
Very glad that Talcum X got booted from the engagement. I quit paying attention to him years ago but am amazed to hear the stuff he’s done to become king of the grifters. I’d be amazed that people keep giving to him, except I’ve seen what an effective fundraiser Trump is, so I already know that people love a how a great con artist makes them feel.
I love your insight into Kate being on display the same day as giving birth to show that people expect her to have no boundaries.
I feel the exact same way as you do about the Royals... with the exception that as a Canadian of Irish (Catholic) and French descent, I wish they would ride into the sunset.... sick and tired of spending tax dollars on this poop show!