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Jesse Singal pointed this threat out on Twitter and I spent the next 30 minutes of my life trying to understand it. Apparently Chaédria LaBouvier’s claim to fame is that she’s the first black woman hired as an art curator at the Guggenheim. And back in 2019 she curated an exhibit for the gallery of a painting by Basquiat. But apparently it was a very bad experience for her. There was some kind of panel discussion about the exhibition and she criticized the Guggenheim for not having her on the panel.

That’s the backstory to the thread she posted today in which she is exceedingly angry that a reporter from the Atlantic contacted her to talk about her experience. First she explains the backstory in her own words:

So she’s upset that her viral video (which had about 1,800 retweets) didn’t make news at the time. But here’s the big payoff, the email from the Atlantic reporter that really set her off. Be warned this is brutal stuff.

Okay, I lied. That’s the most bland, polite email seeking an interview I’ve ever read. It’s entirely professional and not the least bit upsetting in any way. And notice Lewis did not “literally demand” anything as LaBouvier claims. What Helen Lewis literally wrote was, “Might we talk?” which was a question not a demand.

And somehow we go from that polite email to this response: “So you plan to discuss my experience? F**k you. I am so tired of scavenging journalists attempting to speak for me, or depict me.” She added, “As I said in my Instagram message to you, should you f**k this up—which you will—I will be on your ass like white on rice on a paper plate in a snowstorm at a KKK rally.”

Helen Lewis responded with another polite but this time more pointed email. “I plan to quote parts of our correspondence so far.” She noted that she had never agreed to treat any correspondence as off the record. LaBouvier doubled down: “I want to be incredibly clear again. F**k you.” She added, “You also do not have the bylines that suggest you can carry this story with the reporting, truth and consideration it deserves. Your responses in no way suggest that you have the range that I am speaking of, and I absolutely will not be speaking to you. I do not defer to arrogance, Whiteness or lack of expertise.”

And that’s just the start of this thread. There are another 30 tweets that follow, none of which manages to explain why the author is shouting at a journalist over a polite request to talk. A sample:

She tagged Lewis’ boss in several tweets.

She even drags the Queen and the British Empire into it.

Anyway, that’s probably enough for now. I’m actually interested to read the story about racism at the Guggenheim now.

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