I’ve never had one. I loved those weekends; they made me feel like I was both punishing and treating myself at the same time, which is what writing is often like in general. Apparently, Jia has noticed that there have been some very old news articles floating around on leftist reddit concerning a criminal case that her family was involved in more than a decade ago, and instead of keeping quiet like any sensible person would, she decided to bring the entire world's attention to it by writing this blog post: My parents recently pointed out to me that some misinformation about them had been spreading online; it's since taken on a life of its own and morphed into petty internet gossip. but i also do think that she very much wants people to know how smart she is. idk if that makes any sense, it's late and im high, I went back and read that UT article and this line at the end, though out of context, really struck me: "The difference comes down to a very old question about whether a person is obligated to do anything to right an injustice that they did not personally commit. the reason i suspected something in the buttermilk wasn’t clean about her yale claim is because i read in some interview that she received a merit-based scholarship there but turned it down for a better offer. Thank you so much! (referring to the people posting receipts of the court documents and victim testimonies-- yikes! Yea that article was immediately what I thought of. I took a course about human trafficking in my social work program and everything described in Jia's parents' case is textbook. Her fan following is more like that of a minor pop star than that of an author and the literary hype for her writing is the envy of every MFA graduate. Yeah that was an excellent thread and I'll add it to the post. Ultimately, Jia isn't responsible for her parents' crimes. The January pick for our Now Read This book club was a book of essays exploring many aspects of American culture through the prism of the Internet and social media. Now, I have a 4-month-old baby, and I can feel that it’s becoming more necessary to really carve out space for writing in advance. © 1996 - 2021 NewsHour Productions LLC. Weiss defended herself by saying that many outlets were celebrating Nagasu … Jan 29, 2021 4:23 PM EST ... Jia Tolentino said. idk idk. I’ve always just written anytime I had a chance, almost compulsively — on planes, on weekends, late at night when other work was done. She's long been obsessed with Jia Tolentino, since it seems that she finds it hard to accept that a woman of color is way more talented, successful, and hotter than she is. - but to an American hearing the story, doesn't it come off as weird? I started to feel an underlying current connecting these ideas. Jess Morales Rocketto, the Political Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Dara Lind, Pro-Publica immigration reporter, Lizzie O'Leary, former weekend Marketplace host on NPR, Leila Claire, some nobody but she went hard for Jia so she's included on this list, Lyn Lenz, some writer or journalist I've never heard of, Kat Brown, who looks like a nobody, but somehow still has a blue checkmark, Garth Greenwell, novelist and critic, who wrote this hilarious tweet of support, Min Jin Lee, novelist, also tweeted something, ONTD Original: Monthly Movie Challenge – February, Bernie Sanders and his mittens go viral on Inauguration Day. Not that it was overlooked — it was nominated for the Pulitzer — but the most thrilling piece of art that I’ve experienced in the pandemic was Will Arbery’s play “Heroes of the Fourth Turning,” somehow staged brilliantly over Zoom. And to engage in it for human trafficking? Whatever, you guys will come up with something better. For the past decade, Jia Tolentino has been writing feverishly on the front lines of cultural warzones. I couldn't believe even Mero decided to praise her for that shitty essay. That's some Trumpian Fake News nonsense. Writing “Trick Mirror” might actually have been good preparation. lemme find it rq. Anyway, consider donating to one of my favorite organizations doing anti-trafficking work. I didn't care for Kara either tbh I'm not surprised to see her in the replies too. This is a wonderful thread. finding out the author was already dead by the time it was published made me even angrier. books; Here Are Some Great Virtual Book Events Happening This Week: Feb. 1–7. baffling to think you'd write a best-selling collection of essays about literally, your self and your life, and not expect something like this to come out. It was less a moment than a door slowly opening. Somewhere out there, Alison Roman breathes a sigh of relief. Our January book club pick for Now Read This, the PBS NewsHour’s book club with The New York Times, is Jia Tolentino’s “Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion.” and re her not talking about academically excelling at school, i believe that. Formerly, she was the deputy editor at Jezebel and a contributing editor at the Hairpin.She grew up in Texas, went to University of Virginia, and got her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan. Damn, books/author tag on ONTD has been getting good about these kind of takedowns/summaries of this type of drama. Look at all the so-called "journalists" in the response who took her story at face value without a simple google search.A google search reveals a much more cynical and less sympathetic story for her parents. ", The money was arranged to be loaned to the teachers at a. Well, this is...incredibly dizzying, but I salute your hard work, OP!! yale doesn’t award those. This post is amazing and thank you so much for breaking it all down - dont forget to nom yourself for ontd original of the year if we forget <3. lol whoops! "He claims that "the flabbergasted judge stops everything to demand briefing on the actual violation" when like......this literally never happened.....if you read the actual screenshot, it says that the TOLENTINOS claimed that the teachers *weren't* in the states illegally but the TOLENTINOS didn't provide any legal arguments/evidence to support this, so the judge asked the TOLENTINOS (lmfao), not the prosecution, for briefing. Samantha Power and Laura Dern discuss the current political moment, Jia Tolentino and Hilton Als discuss Joan Didion, a panel on Texas cozy mysteries, and much more. She also wrote a. In September 2004, New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, then 15, tried out for a reality show. Choices. In 2019, she published an essay collection called Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion As far as kids books go, E.L. Konigsburg’s “The View From Saturday” is an underrated classic. Applicant was repeatedly told she would be deported if she did not stay with the transportation organization. The gossip is priceless. These were book getaways, which I’d spend researching, barreling through terrible first drafts, forcing myself to sit down until I felt like I’d gotten somewhere. These people are better journalists than all these NYC elites. 62.1k Followers, 871 Following, 1,174 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Jia Tolentino (@jiatortellini) He and Louis refused to entertain the rightful criticism of Ariana Grande's blackface lol. Jia Tolentino. people are saying she has a lot of pull and also they all rely on each other for connections so they have to kiss her/each other's ass, or something. I'm always interested in seeing what you have to say. They also bring victims of trafficking home, and their traffickers to justice in court. A google search reveals a much more cynical and less sympathetic story for her parents. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine and Pitchfork. But I knew I was done with the book the same way that I know whenever I’m done at a party: when I notice that I’m starting to repeat myself. She somehow managed to make a piece on Kanye at Coachella about her Southern Baptist upbringing. WATCH: Jia Tolentino on what role online shaming plays in the COVID era Arts. Eventually, the Tolentinos agreed to a plea deal and were indicted only on one count (conspiracy to defraud the government) and the charges on smuggling were dropped. Ira has always been like that. I follow a bunch of authors/NYC media folks on twitter who were strangely defending her despite being vocal about immigration issues in their work? omg there was a comment from a user here a few weeks ago saying a journalist is going down soon and I thought hinted at jia..... oh lol I remember one like that, it was in the Alison Roman post and said another nyc media person had a very bad history that was about to unearthed. I had to give it another glance when I saw that handle while looking at her replies myself. Though he's always deleting tweets so maybe I missed it? And they did remind me that there’s a level of thought and instinct that I don’t know how to access without spending a couple of nights alone. 2020 is weird, you guys. And then the 2016 election happened, and I started wanting to capture a certain tonal mode of inquiry — to pursue clarity in a way that was still openly flawed, entangled, and confused. his trolling is honestly the reason i’ll never delete that stupid bird app. Thank you. He's very much in the "I've got mine so I don't really care much about others" camp now. She lives in Brooklyn. Teachers were required to have a co-signer (usually a relative) who the Tolentinos could file charges against if the teachers missed 2+ payments without permission. Not that I would blame the workers for thinking that's a great opportunity - I'm sure it seemed like an amazing one! that poor woman. they could have owned up to their shit and kept the original tweets up and admitted they fucked up but nah, that would require the tiniest bit of integrity that they don't have. It's far more disturbing that they all appear to tacitly agree that posting screenshots of the victims sworn testimony is "trolling". The "petty internet gossip" is about how in 2004, Jia's parents and grandmother were indicted by the U.S. Government (in U.S. v Omni Consortium, Inc) in a smuggling scheme to import teachers from the Philippines. There were a handful of open-ended questions in my head that started ballooning, to the point that I wanted seven, eight, nine thousand words to meander through them. I'll randomly think of that piece once in a while and get equal parts angry and sad, omg That article is exactly what I thought about and is still so shocking to think about. Fourth Estate, 303 pp., £14.99, August 2019, 978 0 00 829492 2 Show More. that article made my blood boil. Please check your inbox to confirm. i grew up really poor but my family scrounged up money to send me to a private school for hs and then to an ivy so my my status signalling detector is set off by a butterfly's wings a block away, and she's always struck me as someone who is hyper aware of the image she's projecting. Am I crazy or is the entire premise of the whole scheme super weird and suspect? Keep It has gotten so much worse and it's not just because Kara left. She is a staff writer for The New Yorker. a bit of is simpler and more pathetic than that - Jia Is So Cool, these people also want to be cool so they just trust her and like her enough to want to take her at word so they do. in the particular area they mentioned (mcallen for example) there is a great need for bilingual teachers. I am liking this Fandom Wank vibe. Still, it feels a bit like plugging a tiny hole in a huge dam, because all of those online platforms – like Twitter or Facebook – can co-opt and profit from any resistance. During the two years that I was working on it, I was also writing full-time for the New Yorker, so I did get into a pattern where I’d rent little guesthouses in the Catskills for one long weekend at the beginning of every month. interesting, i didn’t know all that. Afaik, she's disavowed her father in her music and the situation seems completely different from what Jia's done here. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. watching the nyc publishing mafia lose their shit over this has been a treat. (I grew up in a small town with a pretty small school system, so we very much had The Same Few Teachers Who Had Been There Forever for most of my school career). ), Fatima Bhutto, novelist and journalist and member of the Bhutto political dynasty. Jia Tolentino is a young and terrific writer, who is a staff writer for The New Yorker.She is the author of the acclaimed essay collection, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion, which hit every 10-best list from NPR to the New York Times, to Good Housekeeping.Like Didion, Jia thinks about cultural phenomena that confound us and define us, and sometimes wholly absorb us. Ishmael Reed summed it up in an interview that the NYC publishing world is white af and they will prop up minorities only to tear them down, so works by non-white authors inevitably become sanitized and defanged. As it stands, she now comes off as trying to exonerate her parents' participation in an exploitative enterprise that took advantage of vulnerable people. She was forced to work for this organization without compensation, doing tasks such as coordinating the transportation needs of teachers. The top 100 ships ... Celebs React to Domestic Terrorists Invading US Capitol, https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/106246436.html, https://twitter.com/jiatolentino/status/1263208982614814722. Left: The author was clearly still so deluded, jfc i hate red scare stans and honestly the girls piss me the fuck off too and constantly trigger me w their ed bullshit, the takedown of mitski was so weird when people were going "ah, SUNY Purchase, an expensive snobby conservatory" and flashbacks of my friends who went there explaining how the dorms were literally built to lock down like a mental ward and all for the price of in-state tuition. I agree that her parents and grandmother were definitely profiting off of this ordeal with the "security deposits" and probably some from the school districts and their company in general, but do we know if they got a cut from Blue Pacific for referring these teachers for the loans? thank you for clearing this up, I had a heart attack thinking how could Jaboukie support human trafficking??? Also, something that seems lost on Jia and her supporters: put together a list of their recommendations for Philippines-based and Fil-AM works, The response to this post has been very positive, I'm so appreciative that you guys liked it. The prosecution originally indicted the Tolentinos on 40 counts. Even if you're disinclined to believe the feds (understandable), what's notably missing from Jia's blog post and her supporters' comments is the perspective of the most important individuals involved: The teachers themselves. Totally agreed with you on the NYC publishing mafia lol. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino. That so many journalists just unquestioningly accepted her story at face value is SO FUCKING INFURIATING. hate that you had to write this!' it's such a cliche. Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at the New Yorker and the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror. pic.twitter.com/rgXkuwx4xi, (Please no one be nice to me here or it'll make it worse), By logging in to LiveJournal using a third-party service you accept LiveJournal's User agreement. Jia Tolentino has made a name for herself online, as a staff writer at The New Yorker writing about everything from youth vaping culture to Ovid. Her writer friends, of all people, should know how important it is to tell a story right. Certain works of reported nonfiction live with such prominence in my personal canon that I almost forget that it’s possible that other people might not have read them yet: Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s “Random Family,” Matthew Desmond’s “Evicted,” and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio’s “The Undocumented Americans” come to mind immediately, these books where literary beauty and reportorial devotion and political weight are so intertwined. i'll be perched in my corner as the story unfolds. Yet librato and cruz were not charged with anything, as they reside IN the Philippines, which is just absolutely disgusting. I’m about to read all the tweet reactions now. I like ha but come on, this is a stupid-ass take. It’s dope that you’re mad about Jia Tolentino’s article, but don’t stop there. Things have been going great for Jia Tolentino, the best-selling author of the essay collection "Trick Mirror". seeing twitter fawn all over this chick, falling over themselves to call her brave and say 'thinking of you! I gave up on Keep It a long time ago although I stuck with it a little longer than Pod Save America. The Mitski thing really disturbed me because people were using it to bring back those false allegations against her last year too. but maybe that was poor reporting. I would argue, as you might expect, that we are obligated to do so", “ how she used to have a job writing college admissions essays for rich white kids (making $450/session).”. Courtney Vinopal. “I was doing the whole thing like, ‘I don’t know, does this sound like it could be good?’” Tolentino recounted to the PBS NewsHour. pic.twitter.com/QDK8gQGDv5, This is why the country has gone to hell. There was a great thread by an account that broke down all the lies. I wish I hadn’t had to write this, but I wanted to make some things clear https://t.co/aEUa9QbjxD. Look at all the so-called "journalists" in the response who took her story at face value without a simple google search. They ran a shitty agency and the U.S. government was equally shitty, both things can be true. That day freed me from one of the worst traps in both life and writing, where you talk or think about something for so long that you neglect your freedom to just go out and give it a try. they did it with bo burnham too back when he was poppin for eighth grade. At some point her professor reminded her that the only way to find out if the idea would hold up on paper was to “actually write it.”. EDIT: Another excellent thread to refer to: So at least some of the teachers actually went to the US INS first to seek help in getting away from the Tolentinos. “That day freed me from one of the worst traps in both life and writing, where you talk or think about something for so long that you neglect your freedom to just go out and give it a try,” Tolentino said. But she IS responsible for how she reports on it, if she chooses to do so at all. I'm not going to tag it as an ONTD Original*, (there have been a lot of good originals though, if you somehow stumbled upon this post and typically don't read ONTD, please check them out. She has previously worked as deputy editor of Jezebel and a contributing editor at The Hairpin. But she is otherwise so savvy that I was shocked that she made this blog post. /1, I'm a Southeast Asian. I saw enough today about Jia Tolentino's parents and "human trafficking" to pull up the docket.TLDR: the "trafficking" aspect was so weak the judge blew it up mid-trial, but GW Bush's buddy wanted big numbers, so he kept going to extract a plea on a single catch-all charge. Wheeeew at first I was willing to give Jia the benefit of the doubt bc the ppl initially raising this issue up were Red Scare stans who absolutely were acting from a bad faith place and I really like her as a writer.