She’s facing a backlash.
A midwife from Brooklyn endeavoring to make new connections has drawn criticism and been labeled a “colonizer” over her attempt to host a dice game night in her local area.
Ellen Christy, 30, who works at Jamaica Hospital, has come under fire from internet users who accused her of gentrifying the community and culturally appropriating black traditions after she shared about her monthly “Bunco Club” on the Bedford-Stuyvesant Facebook group.
“Hello everyone – I’m looking for women in Bedford-Stuyvesant to join a Bunco Club!” wrote Christy, who is white. “Bunco is a dice-rolling game (similar to Yahtzee!), and no skills are necessary.”
Accompanying her post was a selfie of Christy with several other women sitting on the floor, the majority appearing to be white.
However, instead of receiving an inviting response from her community, Christy was met with a barrage of indignation and accusations of hosting a “Colonizer Cee-Lo Club,” a reference to a dice game often linked with historically black neighborhoods such as Bed-Stuy.
“Are you all playing gentrified Cee-Lo?!” remarked one commenter. Another wrote, “colonizers gonna colonize.”
Interestingly, Bunco’s origins trace back to working-class England in the 18th century, while Cee-Lo is speculated to have been introduced to the Americas by Chinese laborers before it became popular in urban black communities.
Dice have a rich history in gaming, with usage dates back to around 3000 BCE, documented in ancient civilizations including Greece, Rome, Egypt, and China.
It’s unclear when Christy made her controversial post, but after it accumulated over 100 heated comments, it was removed.
The deletion prompted more furious responses when a screenshot of her original post was shared.
“Taking down your post erases all the effort we made to educate you; it’s an embodiment of colonial violence,” wrote Janessa Wilson, attracting another round of negative commentary from enraged users.
“The dice game is practically a genocide,” another comment asserted.
Others venting their anger suggested her intentions were harmful.
“Posting that in this group was an act of aggression. I can’t believe a whites-only club in Bed-Stuy would be seen as a welcoming space for anyone who isn’t white,” one user posted.
Yet, Christy never explicitly stated there were any eligibility criteria for joining her club, linking her post to an online application that included inquiries such as, “Do you reside in Bedstuy? If not, what neighborhood do you belong to?” as well as, “How did you learn about this club?” and “What’s your motivation for joining this club?”
Furthermore, while the form solicited social media profiles, Christy noted that it was only necessary “if you’re comfortable disclosing that.”
Christy had previously shared information about her Bunco Club in the Bed-Stuy Facebook group in May, without any backlash.
Wilson, who utilizes her personal Facebook page to highlight perceived misdeeds by white individuals in her community, did not provide any comments when approached.
“No one who isn’t ‘them’ is secure,” she noted while sharing Christy’s original post.
Christy, it’s worth mentioning, works as a midwife in a health center situated in the historically black neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens. She could not be reached for comments on Monday.
“In my post-graduation years from nursing school, I grew increasingly passionate about advocating for birthing individuals and reproductive health,” she shared in an interview with a student publication during her midwifery studies.
“I began to explore more about the significant effect nurse-midwives have on mother and infant health outcomes and experiences, which inspired me to pursue my own path as a nurse-midwife.”
