Thread by @thedailybeast

EXCLUSIVE: Employees of PETA are revolting against the organization’s plan to “speak up for animal issues while honoring MLK Day,” emails obtained by The Daily Beast show. And PETA President Ingrid Newkirk isn’t taking it well. trib.al/hGurtds

The controversy began when Newkirk—in an email to every PETA employee in the country—attempted to address internal staffer concerns, calling them “extremely saddening” trib.al/hGurtds

In the nearly 800-word email, sent under the subject line “Please absorb this,” Newkirk went on to claim that “using race as a reason to be quiet is actually racist” trib.al/hGurtds

She then suggested that Harriet Tubman would not have freed any slaves if she had not accepted the help of white landowners, and wondered about the fate of Jews in the Holocaust if they had not accepted the shelter of German Christians trib.al/hGurtds

“White, black, brown, yellow, striped or polka dots, who cares?” she wrote, in the kind of “colorblind” language that racial justice advocates have long decried as unhelpful.

Read the full exclusive by @eshugerman and @maxwelltani here: trib.al/hGurtds