Meme Wars: How the micro-grievances of different immigrant classes reflect a broader problem in our conception of race in America.
Above a video of the Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu landing a triple axel, New York Times opinion editor and writer (and former Tablet editor) Bari Weiss appended a tag line referencing Hamilton and sent the message out on Twitter: “Immigrants: They get the job done.” A social media pile-on ensued. Weiss stood accused of committing a hateful micro-aggression against the Olympian by referring to her as an immigrant when in fact she had been born in the United States. Her protestations that her intention had been to celebrate the accomplishments of immigrants were for naught. Minority co-workers at the Times joined in the condemnation on the paper of record’s internal discussion platform. The Slack chats were in turn leaked to the Huffington Post. One complainant compared Weiss’ tweet with the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry during the World War II.
We owe a debt to the leaker and the Huffington Post for delivering news that all of us can use. In the past 18 months, I’ve had many debates with friends about whether the fractiousness and hyperbole about identity that has long been endemic to academia and the activist left would intrude into the wider world. We now know the answer: L’affaire Weiss was just about the clearest possible demonstration of a premise stated by Andrew Sullivan in a recent column in New York magazine declaring “We All Live on Campus Now.” A close reading of the text, subtext, and context of the Bari Weiss pile-on is therefore in order. It presages what will soon sweep through every institution in America.
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