【】Apr 10, 2017 at 2:34pm PDT
According to Ivanka Trump's website, her brand is Strong, Smart Working Woman. Her mission? "Inspiring and empowering women to create the lives they want to lead." 。
On that thesis alone, chef Angela Dimayuga fits the bill as an Ivanka Girl perfectly: the Brooklyn-based chef rose through the ranks of NYC kitchens to become the executive chef at the downtown Manhattan Mission Chinese. She's an empowered, motivated, driven woman forging her own path. 。
However, Dimayuga is also a queer person of color and the daughter of immigrants, and that no longer fits the Ivanka Girl brand so neatly. Ivanka's new position in an Anti-Immigrant, Anti-LBGTQ, generally Anti-Women White House is fundamentally Anti-Dimayuga and her very identity. 。
So when a freelancer reached out to Dimayuga, highlighting her as a "strong female entrepreneur" and hoping to interview her for Ivanka Trump's website, the chef let them know just that. 。
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Apr 10, 2017 at 2:34pm PDT 。
Dimayuga posted the DM the freelancer sent, as well as her own response detailing why she would be--to put it lightly--declining the offer to her Instagram. She consulted her friend, activist Shakirah Simley, to help her compose the message, copied here in its entirety courtesy of the Huffington Post: 。
"Hi Adi, Thank you for thinking of me. I’m glad you are a fan of my work so much that you want to provide more visibility for my career to inspire “other working women.” However, I’m for women who actually empower other women. 。
I don’t believe that IvankaTrump.com is truly “a non-political platform of empowerment for [women]." So long as the name Trump is involved, it is political and frankly, an option for the IvankaTrump.com business to make a profit.
I don’t see anything empowering about defunding Planned Parenthood, barring asylum from women refugees, rolling back safeguards for equal pay, and treating POC/LGBT and the communities that support these groups like second class citizens. 。
As a queer person of color and daughter of immigrant parents I am not interested in being profiled as an aspirational figure for those that support a brand and a President that slyly disparages female empowerment. Sharing my story with a brand and family that silences our same voices is futile.
Thank you for the consideration." 。
It's perfectly put, eloquent, and honestly generous, all things considered. 。
Ivanka's website is laced with floral accents and watercolor illustrations, the foundation being a solid dusty rose background. It's all lovely. And it was all perfectly acceptable when she was merely the daughter of a real estate mogul and reality TV host. 。
Now, though, she's an adviser to the President of the United States of America. In a White House that has, in less than 100 days, cut back funding to Planned Parenthood, reinstated and expanded the anti-women global gag rule, and generally proven itself disrespectful to women at large (truly too many examples to source just one, but we'll toss in a quick #tbt to this Angela Merkel gaffe).。
Ivanka's doing her best to maintain a brand of "gentle but strong womanhood," but the people her employer/father are targeting know that even the softest of floral patterns can't mask the smell of Complicit. 。
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