NAACP honoree Whitney Alese recently unleashed “The Woke Mama” to lambast a viral clip of a model portraying the last Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, at the 2024 Met Gala.
The self-proclaimed Woke Mama and digital creator took to Instagram on May 8 with a video that garnered nearly 30,000 likes. She found it “gross” when Haley Kalil posted a viral clip saying, “Let them eat cake” before buoyantly dancing to the soundtrack of the 2006 retelling of the ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette.
“The startling juxtaposition of having an extremely extravagant ball where only the wealthiest people can even attend side by side with the suffering that we see regularly is baffling,” Whitney said in her video posting before unleashing her statement about the viral clip.
She continued, “The idea of paying $75,000 for one ticket to attend this event while most people don’t even make that much in a year combined with the criminalization of homelessness. The basic essentials in the grocery store are priced out of many people’s price points; mere healthcare is unattainable, public education is being defunded. People are outraged, as they should be.”
Further in the video, the NAACP award-winner freed Woke Mama and highlighted the “massive disconnect” illustrated by the ball.
Whitney explained that Marie Antoinette supposedly remarked the model’s choice of words. said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche,” or “Let them eat brioche.” The phrase is commonly tied with the royal who reputedly flaunted the wealth of the French crown while the lower classes suffered through poverty and struggled to feed themselves with basic necessities like bread… Despite that, several sources argue that the last pre-revolutionary Queen of France never uttered those words.
“To pair that with the ostentatiousness of a Met Gala is surmised in this video. Remember where that phrase comes from, ‘Let them eat cake,'” she informed. “It reflects a flipping attitude of the aristocracy to the suffering of the common people and when people couldn’t afford to buy a basic essential as bread… the aristocracy was just like ‘well alright let them eat cake.'”
She added in the clip, “What was absolutely gross to me was the awareness of the suffering of other people, pairing your Met Gala with this sound to essentially say…’I’m sorry you’re suffering, but I’m out here having a great t ‘time.
The Woke Mama receives support in her comments section about the entire ordeal.
In response to Whitney’s video, one agreeable user said, “You took the words right out of my mouth. It’s giving Hunger Games…”
Another impassioned user wrote, “They get together in their finery and eat luxury food while wearing luxury clothing while the world burns because they don’t care to extinguish some of the heated backlash, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model responds with what she thought brought clarity behind the sound.
The viral May 7 clip, containing Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” in the background, has garnered nearly 15 million views and over 3 million likes.
“Just wanted to clarify that this sound was used because my dress was Marie Antoinette themed,” Haley penned in the comments section of the Met Gala dress showcase. “That is the ONLY reason I would never use this sound for any other meaning that’s heartbreaking.”
However, naysayers wanted Haley to divulge further.
X (formerly Twitter) users also mentioned the correlation between Hunger Games and today’s world.
Besides, another X user suggests that the model’s Met Gala display understood the assignment of the event’s “Garden Time” theme.
