Jeff Yang 🫶 Profile picture
Sep 12, 2020 14 tweets 5 min read Read on X
It is really quite amazing that Tulsi Gabbard, right-wingers and QAnon have converged to swarm a fictional movie for allegedly exploiting young black Muslim girls, a group that all three have expressed zero actual concern for in the real world ImageImageImage
Amazing, but not surprising. Bad faith actors are gonna bad faith act.

None of these folks have watched the film, most don’t know what it’s about and are unaware it’s a French indie film by a Black woman director—a child of Senegalese Muslim immigrants—not a Netflix production.
Curious: Have you watched Dance Moms or Toddlers and Tiaras, both of which have run for...uh...9 seasons?
I’m asking, where were you 9 years ago? For what it’s worth I think Dance Moms and T&T are garbage but this movie is critiquing that kind of culture, not celebrating it. If you want to attack Black women because it’s easier than going after white ones, go off I guess
Annnnd there we go

Going to have to write a letter to Harper’s now Image
There’s a nuanced conversation to be had but it won’t happen in the context of reactive hysteria

I think sexualization of children is bad. So does Maïmouna Doucouré. If you think making something visible is feeding it—what is it exactly that QAnon is allegedly trying to do then?
These folks are swarming a film that *criticizes child sexualization* for showing child sexualization as part of its narrative—

By widely sharing the film’s only clips that contain child sexualization—removing the critique for anyone who wants to watch just the “creepy parts”
And yet, we should also ask why feminist filmmakers of color are being held accountable for ways in which disgusting people miswatch their work? Is advising them to “be careful with shot choices” not like telling women to cover up in public if they want to avoid being harassed?
The burden always falls on women to avoid sexual assault, people of color to avoid brutalization by police, immigrants to avoid being attacked as unassimilable foreigners. A young Black woman filmmaker attacked for critiquing exploitation of young Black women?

It’s exhausting.
This whole thing with Cuties shows how the tropes and energy behind prior shock-tactic viral movements like #WhereAretheGirls and KONY 2012 can easily be weaponized from “protecting” Black women to attacking them, almost like flipping a switch
Basic logic: If you think the clips from this movie are “evidence of child porn,” why are you sharing them all over the Internet 🤪

This is not what you do with child porn, folks. If you ever do come across child porn, report it to authorities, amplifying *makes you complicit*
Meanwhile, as Maïmouna Doucouré gets irresponsibly dragged for her feature film debut, quite literally elsewhere in France, Roman Polanski continues to be feted as a genius
theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/…
Also I’m curious how right wingers can pile on the Black woman director of Cuties while blinding themselves to this and repeated examples of their orange god-king’s disgusting fetishization of adolescent girls
businessinsider.com/michael-cohen-…
Literally laughed out loud Image

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More from @originalspin

Dec 8, 2022
And after massive protests, Xi suddenly rolls back Zero Covid policy with the standard “oh the virus has evolved/our policies have worked” stuff that govs everywhere have done. What are the “Xi can’t possibly pivot or lose face!” maximalists thinking now?
nytimes.com/2022/12/08/wor…
I would’ve thought it would come with a massive vax push but Xi clearly thinks he has power firmly enough in hand that he can shake off whimsically ending a despised public health mandate—and the millions of deaths that will likely follow
Read 7 tweets
Nov 13, 2022
A gift of @ewarren’s Op-Ed in the @nytimes, in which she gives smart, sound, detailed advice on what Dems should do now that we’ve held the Senate. Sharp analysis on how progressive ideas won voters over, and going further will win more, per her brand.
nytimes.com/2022/11/12/opi…
Curious what part of

—reverse Trump tax giveaways to wealthy
—cut housing and child care costs
—end gerrymandering
—protect abortion rights as kitchen table issue not ideologically
—focus on economic well-being of families
—embrace populist economic policies

you disagree with.
Based on your timeline most of these seem to be things you’d support? Or am I wrong
Read 5 tweets
Nov 13, 2022
When the driver of the car decides to play chicken with a police cruiser
It’s a good thing @SenMarkey has no ability to impact my newly acquired social media busi— whoops!

Well at least my satellite broadband startup is oka— dammit

Oh well, I’ve still got my thriving electric transportation company— D’OH ImageImage
No, people in positions of power never abuse them by harassing those who are at the mercy of their authority
Read 4 tweets
Nov 11, 2022
If anyone, ANYONE doubted that Trump's 2024 campaign (which is surely coming, now more than ever) was going to lean hard into China-bashing and inflaming anti-Asian xenophobia, stop doubting.

Also, Trump is a racist, that much is plain.
Kind of makes me wonder how newly re-elected Republican congressmember @YoungKimCA feels about her soon-to-rise-again racist overlord ImageImage
Also has anyone told Donald Trump that “young” and “kin” are both actually words in English Image
Read 4 tweets
Oct 20, 2022
Lara Logan was CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent from 2006–2018
I continue to feel sorry for her assault but questions about her journalistic ethics began well before that and then erupted with her Benghazi coverage.

But now who knows how deep Qanon has its claws into her.
It’s quite possible, but it is absolute garbage that Newsmax is trotting her out there while trying to guide her to a coherent on message right wing talking point. Then again I’m sure they’d throw Kanye out there to spout unmedicated antisemitism if he were available.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 18, 2022
Pence is no hero for not criming Trump into office, just like Romney and six other GOP senators are no heroes for voting to impeach him and Liz Cheney is no hero for helping investigate a deadly insurrection

But the bar is just so low for Republicans now—we celebrate Team Normal
The truth is of course that the Republican Party will never be normal again. When no more than a token handful of its members are even willing to *investigate* a massive existential crime against democracy, it’s clear it is beyond hope. And this just the most egregious evidence.
The GOP is a party that refuses to acknowledge the clear and present threat of climate change to the humans species

That won’t act to reign in guns even as kids are murdered week after week

That lets its members flout rules and overtly embrace white nationalism without censure
Read 10 tweets

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