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@prime @skinnylatte The posing as people of colour and as Muslim women was so deeply gross. After I read this article, I went and read a Medium post by the Tubi Hamid persona (https://medium.com/@tubihamid/how-losing-my-hair-led-to-deeper-intimacy-with-my-partner-6d6ab2e9acf) and the way that it uses stereotypes about Muslim communities and culture to cast Coty as this white saviour was....yeah.

I thought a lot too, while reading this article, about the way that white progressive people share anecdotes about their positive interactions with POC. There is a certain type of story-sharing that feels like it reduces the POC to a prop, or some sort of provider of anti-racist enlightenment, rather than an actual person. The POC in this story being literally made-up props for highlighting the white person really dovetails with that.

Another gross aspect of the online commentary that I'm seeing about this story is that people are expressing that Susan Banks was "obviously" fake because no one has "that many identities (Deaf, muslim, queer, disabled, immigrant) at the same time". There are some unlikely aspects to the story (like the whole hospital visit) that would have been red flags for sure, but the overlapping identities is not one of them. This is only going to harm people who do live at the intersection of those identities, who are already dealing with marginalization, and who now have to deal with people thinking that they're misrepresenting their lives. Or that they're not even real!

I've been thinking recently about how so much of racism (especially in progressive communities) is characterized by depersonalization, and this story gives a lot to chew on in that regard.