White midwife accused of colonialism and violence after trying to set up dice-playing group in her woke Brooklyn neighborhood
A white midwife has been accused of ‘colonialism and violence’ over an innocent post looking for people to join her games night.
Ellen Christy, 30, faced a flood of hate on Facebook after she advertised her Bunco Club, which she said she started to ‘connect with other women’ in New York City.
‘Hi all – seeking women living in Bedford-Stuyvesant to join a Bunco Club!’ Christy wrote in the post. ‘Bunco is a game of rolling dice (think Yahtzee!), no skills required.’
She included a selfie of six white women beaming as they played the game in an apartment.
Incensed locals accused Christy of ‘playing gentrified cee lo’ – referring to a dice game associated with historically black East Coast neighborhoods such as Bed Stuy, in Brooklyn.
The unexpected hatred prompted Christy to delete her post, but one local, Janessa Wilson, captured it in a screenshot. She re-shared it to the ‘Bed-Stuy Brooklyn Community’ page, prompting a fresh flood of outrage.
Wilson accused Chrissy of ‘colonial violence’ for deleting the original offending post.
‘Deleting your post, and all of the labor that we did to educate, is colonial violence. so that tracks,’ Wilson wrote. ‘The colonizers be colonizing,’ someone agreed in the comments section.
Midwife Ellen Christy (pictured) has been accused of inciting ‘colonialism and violence’ after she tried to set up a card-playing group in a woke New York neighborhood
Christy, 30, faced a flood of hate on Facebook after she made a post advertising her Bunco Club, which she said she stared to ‘connect with other women’ living in Bedford-Stuyvesant
Locals erupted with rage, accusing Christy of ‘playing gentrified cee lo’ – referring to a dice game associated with historically black neighborhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant
Writing about Bed Stuy, another man said: ‘It’s been majority black for 50 years, which makes it a Black neighborhood now and for ever.
‘Don’t bring your whiteness in the space. That’s racist. The dice game is literally genocide.’
Bunco began in working-class England in the 19th century, where it was known as ‘eight dice cloth’, according to the World Bunco Association (WBA).
It was brought to the US in 1855 by a gambler who traveled to San Francisco and California gold fields during the Gold Rush.
The game spread across the US after the civil war, and it is now known as a ‘traditional family or parlor game, promoting social interaction,’ according to the WBA.
Chrissy’s post did not say there were any requirements to join her club and linked to an online form with questions including ‘Do you live in Bed Stuy?’ and ‘Why do you want to join this club?’
The form also asked for social media links, but this came with the caveat: ‘Only if you’re comfortable’.
Despite this seemingly friendly approach, several of Christy’s neighbors went as far as to suggest that her motives were nefarious and potentially deadly.
Bunco began in working-class England in the 19th century, where it was known as ‘eight dice cloth’, according to the World Bunco Association. The game spread across the US after the civil war, and it is now known as a ‘traditional family or parlor game, promoting social interaction’
Despite her seemingly friendly approach, several of Christy’s neighbors went as far as to say that her motives were nefarious and potentially deadly
Christy on the Brooklyn Bridge which connects Manhattan with the borough
‘Posting that in this group was already an act of violence. I would have not a trace of reason to believe that a whites-only club in Bed-Stuy would be a safe and welcoming space to anyone not white,’ one person wrote.
Another person also compared the board game group to ‘the story of the African American woman who mysteriously died while attending a slumber party with her all white friend group’.
The original poster, Janessa Wilson, agreed, writing: ‘No one who isn’t “them” is safe’.
Most of the people raging against Christy have their identities hidden, with their profile pictures instead showing figures including Martin Luther King, Luigi Mangione and Palestine banners.
Christy is a midwife at a medical center serving the traditionally black neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens. The Daily Mail has reached out to her for comment.
