‘We need to use our privilege’: TikTok teacher goes viral after ‘white women for Kamala’ Zoom call
A kindergarten teacher turned TikTok influencer has gone viral after giving helpful advice during a ‘white women for Kamala’ Zoom meeting.
A kindergarten teacher turned TikTok influencer has gone viral for her advice during a “white women for Kamala” Zoom call.
Arielle Fodor, who goes by Mrs Frazzled on TikTok where she has 1.3 million followers and is known for giving “gentle parenting” advice, was the breakout star of Thursday’s livestream, which was titled “White Women: Answer the Call”.
Fodor told her fellow white women that they need to “use our privilege to make positive changes” and that they should refrain from “talking over or speaking for BIPOC individuals”. BIPOC means “black, Indigenous and people of colour”.
“We are here because BIPOC women have tapped us in as white women to step up, listen and get involved this election season,” Fodor said.
“This is a really important time and we all need to use our voices and influence for the greater good. No matter who you are you are all influencers in some way.”
Fodor shared her “dos and don’ts for getting involved in politics online, and navigating the toxicity that comes with it”.
“And spoiler alert, as much as the toxicity can come from the outside, it can come from us too,” she said.
“So first, don’t isolate yourself. We can do our best work when we’re in community together like we are tonight because the toxic feels smaller when we support each other. But don’t make it about yourself.”
She advised that “as white women we need to use our privilege to make positive changes”.
“If you find yourself talking over or speaking for BIPOC individuals or God forbid, correcting them, just take a beat and instead we can put our listening ears on,” she said.
“So do learn from and amplify the voices of those who have been historically marginalised and use the privilege you have in order to push for systemic change. As white people we have a lot to learn and unlearn so do check your blind spots.”
Fodor also gave tips to attendees on building their social media algorithm, knowing when to walk away from an argument and being careful to verify sources before sharing information online.
“Don’t lose hope,” she said. “And don’t burn out. We need you and your heart.”
A clip of Fodor’s remarks has gone viral online with more than 4.3 million views.
“OK, as a parent I already enjoyed Arielle Fodor’s ‘Mrs Frazzled’ reels, but tonight she is dropping wisdom and serious tips for decentring the white perspective, listening to and elevating BIPOC voices and engaging in hard convos on the internet and IRL. Teachers are the best,” wrote Erica Cischke, a health policy expert with the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine.
But some conservative social media users described the clip as “cringe” and “weird”, referring to the Harris campaign’s favourite new word to describe former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
“These women never struggled for anything in their lives and they feel the need to virtue signal,” one X user commented.
Right-wing social media influencer Collin Rugg wrote, “The ‘weird’ white woman who went viral during a women’s Kamala Zoom call is a teacher turned influencer whose TikTok account is even more cringe than her Zoom incident. ‘Mrs Frazzled’ is known for talking to her TikTok audience as if she is speaking to five-year-olds. So cringe. She used the same voice to talk to middle-aged women LMAO.”
In a previous TikTok video, Fodor mocked Republicans who wore bandages on their ears at the Republican National Convention, describing Mr Trump’s injury from being shot in an assassination attempt as an “owie”.
“No, we do not need a Band-Aid because our friend has one, got it?” she said. “He has an owie, he gets a Band-Aid, you do not. Take your seat.”
After the shooting at the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally earlier this month that nearly killed Mr Trump and left one attendee dead and two others seriously injured, Fodor told her followers that “I don’t think the right thing to do right now is to tell people to be nice or pray for a man who has basically never given a s**t about anybody who is not rich, white, cis male and able-bodied”.
“This is a person who has said we need to get over school shootings,” she said.
“Like, I don’t wish him illl, but I’m not going to tell people how to feel. He was hit in the ear and he’s going to be fine. But the person who’s not fine is the person who is deceased and the people who were injured. Again, gun violence has claimed a life in the United States of America, and it is awful and you’re never going to find me cheering that on in any form.”
The meeting to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ election campaign was the largest Zoom call in history with more than 200,000 attendees, including high-profile figures like pop star Pink, Spin City actress Connie Britton and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.
The 90-minute event raised $US8.5 million ($12.5 million), and came after a similar “black women for Kamala” Zoom event that drew 44,000 attendees and raised US$1.5 million ($2.3 million) for the Democratic presidential nominee.
The organiser of Thursday’s event, Shannon Watts from anti-gun-violence group Moms Demand Action, told The Cut she got the idea from the earlier events.
“I noticed that black women in particular were tagging me on Twitter and saying, ‘OK, white women, you’re up,’” she said.
“A lot of the conversation on our Zoom was centred around a course correction, something that black women don’t have to do. They’ve been doing this work for decades and they’ve been on the right side of the issue.”
Asked why she thought there was so much enthusiasm to join the call — which at one point got so large it caused Zoom to crash — Ms Watts said there was “a lot of regret among white women about what happened in the last couple of elections”.
“The majority of us voted for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton and the next year, even more white women voted for Trump than Biden,” she said.
“But based on the energy we’re seeing, I’m very hopeful we will finally flip the script.”
She added, “If we can get some women who are offended by Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s stances on everything from IVF to cat ladies to childless women, we can win this election in a landslide.”
It came amid ongoing controversy over comments from Mr Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Senator J.D. Vance, who claimed “childless cat ladies” were running the US and “want to make the rest of the country miserable too”.
The Hillbilly Elegy author made the comments during a 2021 interview on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show in reference to Ms Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who has adopted twin boys with his husband Chasten Glezman — and Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Mr Vance said.
Mr Vance doubled down on the comments on Friday, telling SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly it was “obviously … a sarcastic comment” and joking “I’ve got nothing against cats”.
“It’s not a criticism of people who don’t have children,” he said.
“I explicitly said in my remarks … this is not about criticising people who for various reasons don’t have kids. This is about criticising the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.”
Ms Harris does not have biological children but is stepmother to Cole, 29, and Ella Emhoff, 25, the children of her husband Doug Emhoff.
The pair married in 2014 and Ms Harris, dubbed “Momala”, has co-parented with her husband and his ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff for the past 10 years.
Ella Emhoff slammed Mr Vance’s comments in an Instagram post last week, writing, “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I. I love my three parents.”
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