Ellie Kemper 'Veiled Prophet Ball' Queen Controversy

Overview

Ellie Kemper 'Veiled Prophet Ball' Queen Controversy refers to the discovery that actress Ellie Kemper, best known for her roles as Erin on The Office and Kimmy Schmidt on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, was crowned the "Queen of Love and Beauty" at the Veiled Prophet Ball, an annual parade and debutante ball held in St. Louis, which has been criticized as promoting existing power structures holding up the wealthy, white elite. The event also has a racist history, which has led some to interpret it as a white supremacist event similar to a Ku Klux Klan rally.

Background

The Veiled Prophet Ball, renamed "Fair St. Louis" in 1992, is an annual parade held in St. Louis, Missouri. It was started by a cohort of wealthy St. Louis elites known as the Veiled Prophet Organization in 1878 as a means to quell labor tensions and boost trade, though critics have argued one of its main objectives is to emphasize the existing power structure favoring the white, wealthy elite in the town. Each ball takes the form of a parade. At the parade, a masked member of the Veiled Prophets dresses as the "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan." One of the central events of the ball is the presentation of debutantes to the Veiled Prophet, one of whom the Prophet deems the "Queen of Love and Beauty."^[1] The event has been protested throughout its history by minority groups, including Black Lives Matter, for promoting inequality in the city. Ellie Kemper, the daughter of the CEO of Commerce Bank, was crowned "Queen of Love And Beauty" at the 1999 Fair St. Louis.^[2]

Developments

While Kemper's involvement in the ball was publically available knowledge, it was not until May 31st, 2021 that it began spreading on social media. That day, Twitter user @WB_Baskerville^[3] tweeted, "Every once in a while I remember that the Veiled Prophet Ball exists and that everything True Detective season 1 was about is real," to which user @ChrisQRG1917 replied, "What's the Veiled Prophet Ball?" User @hannastasia^[4] tweeted, "A fancy event put on by our local KKK, of which Ellie Kemper was once the Queen of Love and Beauty." Her tweet gained 840 retweets, 540 quote-tweets, and 3,500 likes (shown below, right).

Though the Veiled Prophet Ball is not affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, @hannastasia's tweet, some cosmetic similarities the organization shares with the Klan, and its racist history caused the revelation of Kemper's history with the Veiled Prophet Ball to spread with the idea she was a "KKK Queen." User @dianahungerr^[5] tweeted, "So was no one gonna tell me Ellie kemper aka kimmy Schmidt was crowned KKK queen in 1999," gaining over 1,100 retweets, 1,000 quote-tweets, and 5,000 likes (shown below, left). User @Imani_Barbarin^[6] tweeted, "So…Ellie Kemper was a KKK princess?? And no one knew about it??", gaining over 1,100 retweets and 7,000 likes (shown below, right).

Some were more amused by the controversy than angered by it. User @feraljokes^[7] wrote, "the Ellie Kemper thing is hilarious but you people don't really think she's like, a secret nazi agent and not just from some dumb ass town where they make you square dance right," gaining over 360 retweets and 6,300 likes (shown below, left). User @andymoney69^[8] joked, "Today is my first day working as Ellie Kemper’s publicist! Truly a dream job. My phone has been blowing up all day with what I assume are congratulations but I have been so busy. Time to take a sip of this piping hot coffee and check the trending topics online!"

Search Interest

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