Personal Reflection on the Ellie Kemper controversy

By Julia Lipkis

I was scrolling leisurely through my Facebook feed when an article caught my attention. It was entitled “Why Did Everyone Think Ellie Kemper Was A ‘KKK Princess’?” and was accompanied by a picture of the beaming actress as her character in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  

Why, indeed? I thought to myself before diving in. The bulk of the article focused not upon Kemper but instead upon the history and structure of something called the Veiled Prophet Organization, a Missouri society which to me resembles a cross between a Freemason lodge, a country club, and the elaborate role-playing scenarios my younger brother and I, as small children, used to inflict upon the hapless family guinea pigs.  

According to the article, the Veiled Prophet Organization (VPO) has been around for 140 years and, like most long-standing American institutions, has an ugly history of racism, classism, and sexism. The VPO was founded by former Confederate soldiers in an attempt to cultivate and support the elite of St. Louis, and while there is little to no evidence that it was ever affiliated directly with the Ku Klux Klan, it was certainly never a paragon of social justice.  

How then does Ellie Kemper’s association with the VPO render her a “KKK princess?” Because a Twitter post from May 31 labels her as such, accompanied by a picture of the 19-year old Ellie as the 1999 “Veiled Prophet Queen of Love and Beauty,” 20 years after the first black members were admitted to the club.  

The awkwardness of it all--a teenager with a nervous grin, wearing a ridiculously over-the-top white dress and posing with other attendees in what looks like a corporate hotel--brought to the forefront memories I’d tucked away in the cobwebby reference files of my mind. 

I took violin lessons throughout my entire childhood and adolescence and would dutifully participate in performances during the year, along with all the other students in the guild. While usually these were recitals open only to parents and family members, we would also sometimes perform for other audiences, including retirement home residents or schoolkids. And without fail, every winter, the local country club asked my teacher to arrange a “Christmas Concert.” 

Our group of twelve to seventeen-year olds were obliged to wear formal concert clothes--tuxes and cummerbunds for the boys, and long black skirts for the girls. We were arranged in strict rows by the front door and asked to play through our repertoire without pause. Meanwhile, the members filed majestically in, greeting each other and exclaiming over the decorations. We were the pre-show entertainment (truthfully more like background noise) and once the attendees began to drift into the dining hall, my teacher would signal us to put away our violins. Then she’d tell us how well we’d played and represented ourselves, and how important it was to give back to our community--a community which consisted mainly of CEOs, businessmen, and the moneyed descendants of our town’s founders. 

These country club performances never sat well with me, especially when I learned that this particular club banned Black and Jewish members until the 1980s. But despite my discomfort, I went along with it until I graduated high school. No one forced me to perform, I wasn’t getting paid either way, I had no ties whatsoever with the club. It was simply a routine, something that was a normal, expected part of my life. 

My experience and Ellie Kemper’s are not identical, and neither are the organizations in which we both participated. But I recognize some common strains. We both performed primarily decorative functions within old, well-established institutions that represent themselves as pillars of the community. Both the VPO and my region’s country club were founded to advance the interest of white, wealthy men and pointedly excluded anyone who did not fit within that demographic.  

Shortly after “KKK Princess” began making the rounds, Kemper issued an apology on Instagram for her participation in the debutante ball. “[The VPO] had an unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past...Ignorance is no excuse. I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved,” she wrote in part.  

While I don’t think we should rush to excuse her, the public demand for an apology, and Kemper’s acquiescence, is completely missing the mark. The 19-year old white woman who participated in the debutante ball had no part in establishing and maintaining an institution that continues to codify white power within her society. Had Kemper declined to participate in the ball, nothing would have changed. Educating herself, and ourselves, is not nearly enough. 

Instead, we need to deeply understand the racist and classist history behind such institutions. We need to recognize and then most importantly, challenge the continued hegemony of white economic and social power enshrined in such institutions. We need to have open and honest conversations about what an equitable, just society might look like.