Diversity and Ellen Pompeo: A Friend or Foe?

Ellen Pompeo’s viral interview has made its way across many twitter feeds. As an advocate for diversity, I was interested in watching it. I thought that Ellen Pompeo had eloquently pointed out a fault in diversity in media. It seemed to be very brave. However, when looking at tweets in response to the interview, I was surprised to see people arguing against Pompeo. Many people did not laud her response because everything she said is something that women of color already say, but it is listened to because she is a white woman. Also, other people were against Pompeo because of other racist ideologies that she proclaims, like reverse racism, while using her biracial children as a shield for hate she receives. One even compared her to Beto O’ Rourke who is lauded for his wonderful rhetoric, but has said racist ideas as well. Lastly, the majority of people lauded Ellen Pompeo for being an advocate for diversity and became “Stan” accounts for her. I think the conversation is important to have and I’m glad we can critically look at Ellen Pompeo as an advocate, but maybe she isn’t an ally as the Dictionary.com twitter account suggests.

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