Jacqueline Keeler, Pretendian ethnic fraud list creator, blocks Indigenous Wire

Are we on her (s)hit list now?

“Little girl putting stickers of pees and poops on calendar on the days where she has done each action” (caption and pic courtesy Getty Images)

In response to an Indigenous Wire item yesterday about the way the New York Post treated a picture of writer and activist Jacqueline Keeler in its coverage of the Pretendian/Karendian/Defendian Native identity and ethnic fraud controversy, Keeler shot the messenger — in this case, yours truly.

Keeler has a reputation for doing this kind of thing. Her enemies — among whom we do not consider ourselves, but she might think otherwise based on what you’ll read below — say she tends to serve up disordered logic on a number of topics. Then she deletes related tweets and other social media that would undermine her integrity, and she usually presents herself in the end as the aggrieved, yet righteous, victor on whatever issue she is championing. Gaslighting might be an appropriate word to describe a portion of what Keeler has been described as doing, but we’re not sure, because we haven’t experienced it personally. We suspect that might change soon.

Some people, in fact, warned us not to cover the Post’s possible manipulation of her picture, or even the possibility that the Post took the pic out of context, because Keeler might get angry and seek revenge. But we didn’t listen. Our rationale was that Fox News, owned by the same people that run the Post, has manipulated pictures of people it has wanted to portray unflatteringly in the past, so this certainly could have been the case here.

While Jon Levine, the reporter of the Post piece, emailed back to say he grabbed the picture in question from Keeler’s Instagram, and he later tweeted as much, Keeler went a different route—one that we had been told in advance she might.

“What the heck?” Keeler replied on Twitter, referencing the Indigenous Wire piece. “I’m investigating actual ethnic fraud which harms Native people. This is your angle @RobCapriccioso??”

(We noted more than once within the original piece that this — Native ethnic fraud — is an important issue, and we have previously reported difficult articles about it and will continue to do so. There are many angles to the story, and this one, while not the most crucial, piqued our interest due to the New York Post/Fox News connection and Fox News’ previous manipulation of photos.)

“And how can you use a term that is misogynistic and equates verification of stated claims by people who monetize their claims to Native identity to threatening the lives of Black Americans?” she further asked on Twitter.

(Keeler is referring here, we think, to the fact that we define the already-established terms “Karendian” and “Kendian” within our piece with which she takes umbrage, but we assure you, no misogyny on our behalf was intended. To be clear: We were letting readers know what those terms mean in service of a greater discourse of this topic. Believe it or not, some non-Indian folks, not steeped in this stuff, don’t know what a Pretendian, a Defendian, a Karendian and/or a Kendian are. Again, believe it or not.)

Keeler concluded, “Especially since the vast majority on the Alleged Pretendians list are White Americans playing Indian for profit? Who are hiding behind a serious BLM issue to deflect from their fraud. It’s simply another expression of white privilege.”

(Keeler is referring here, we think, in a roundabout way to people with a combination of Black and Native ancestry/heritage who have felt attacked by her list of alleged ethnic fraudsters. Indeed, some deceivers have argued that her list is in itself racist, or that it has racial undertones, because it includes people who identify as both Black and Native. Hence, she believes that some on the list are “hiding behind” the Black Lives Matter movement by strategically labeling her list racist and pointing to times she has allegedly tweeted the N-word and has allegedly supported doing blackface.)

We attempted to respond to Keeler with a calm, rational tweet, assuring her we weren’t attacking her; rather, we were investigating the Post’s coverage. At the same time, we were defining the long-established “Karendian” and “Kendian” terms — not supporting misogyny — and, again, we do believe this issue is of utmost importance, as we said in the original post.

But our tweet would not go through.

Keeler had blocked us, and she deleted her three Twitter responses that we noted above. We were written off, no more dialogue to be had, and our thoughts on the Post’s coverage were apparently just plain stupid, not worthy of a response (no matter that we repeat, again, that Fox News has been caught doing this very thing in the past in an attempt to undermine people it disagrees with).

If we soon turn up on Keeler’s list, don’t be surprised. But call the Sault Tribe enrollment department if you must. We’re on the list that apparently matters.

Happy Friday, Wiredians (see what we did there?). Would love to hear your thoughts on our first week in the comments below.