Emily Schuman, founder of the popular lifestyle blog “Cupcakes and Cashmere,” is facing backlash on social media because her pumpkin muffins do not raise awareness for the war in Israel.
Schuman shared a video of her “autumn aperol spritz” recipe, which she described as “the perfect fall twist on a summer classic.” Her nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram offered some of the following comments: 1) “Sweet or dry vermouth?” 2) “Yummmmm” and 3) “Emily please acknowledge or say something, anything about the children dying in Palestine.” When Schuman posted a photo of her stylish red cardigan, people responded by saying “looks so soft” and “Emily, please denounce antisemitism to your audience.” On a series of fall-themed photos, users commented 1) “What tennis shoes?” 2) “Your silence is deafening Emily. If you won’t use your platform as a Jewish woman to speak out against antisemitism right now . . . what do you stand for?” 3) “CEASEFIRE” and 4) “Palestinian children being murdered, shaking with fear, you cannot stay silent while an entire people is being slaughtered.”
Schuman has written poignantly about her grandmother, who was an Auschwitz survivor, and perhaps that led some to believe that she holds strong opinions on Israel. Still, I prefer to live in a free society where individuals are not expected to comment on every controversy, and I don’t think that her Jewish heritage obligates her to issue a statement. But more generally, I don’t take geopolitical and fashion guidance from the same women, nor do I order my cocktails with a twist of lectures about war crimes. Yet people — from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine affiliations — are desperately demanding that the fashionista firmly express her views, and they seem to believe that all her social-media activity, regardless of its content, must reiterate her stances.
But perhaps Schuman facilitated the public pressure. She responded to the “Pull Up or Shut Up” campaign for anti-racism advocacy, and she wrote in 2020:
The cupcakes and cashmere brand was inherently founded on my white privilege. I didn’t make room for Black women, women of color, or more generally, women who didn’t look like me, and due to my ignorance and lack of education, I didn’t realize how hurtful, alienating, and problematic my actions and inactions were. And for that, I’m sorry. I am committed to change, and it begins today.
Schuman noted that her business had never had a black employee, lamenting that “I’m ashamed by the lack of diversity within our company and take full accountability.” She directed her company to donate to profits to “organizations supporting BIPOC communities,” hire racially diverse models, and incorporate black-owned businesses into the shop. As one component of her expansive “anti-racist education,” Emily read books like White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo and Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad.
The Great Awokening of 2020 normalized the argument that silence — not merely speech — is violence, and refraining to condemn a given moral issue is implicitly endorsing the side of the “oppressor.” I admit that I have no sympathy for those who are nagged to issue moral decrees when they previously insisted that silence is complicity.
Cupcakes, Cashmere, and Casualties
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16.11.2023
Emily Schuman, founder of the popular lifestyle blog “Cupcakes and Cashmere,” is facing backlash on social media because her pumpkin muffins do not raise awareness for the war in Israel.
Schuman shared a video of her “autumn aperol spritz” recipe, which she described as “the perfect fall twist on a summer classic.” Her nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram offered some of the following comments: 1) “Sweet or dry vermouth?” 2) “Yummmmm” and 3) “Emily please acknowledge or say something, anything about the children dying in Palestine.” When Schuman posted a photo of her stylish red cardigan, people responded by saying “looks so soft” and “Emily, please denounce antisemitism to your audience.” On a series of fall-themed photos, users commented 1) “What tennis shoes?” 2) “Your........
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