Who is Ellen Christy? Why Brooklyn midwife is under fire for dice club post
Ellen Christy, a Brooklyn midwife, faced backlash after inviting locals to a Bunco dice game club, with critics accusing her of gentrification and “colonizing.”
A Brooklyn midwife faced online backlash after trying to start a dice game club in her neighborhood. Ellen Christy wrote, “Hi all – seeking women living in Bedford-Stuyvesant to join a Bunco Club!” she wrote. “Bunco is a game of rolling dice (think Yahtzee!), no skills required.”
Christy, who is white, shared a photo with mostly white women, which drew swift criticism, according to New York Post.
Who is Ellen Christy ?
Ellen Christy, 30, who works at Jamaica Hospital, posted in the Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Facebook group inviting women to join a “Bunco Club.”
Christy has previously said she became a midwife because of her passion for reproductive health. “I started to read more about the positive impact nurse-midwives can have on perinatal outcomes and experiences of pregnancy, and I became inspired to begin the process of becoming a nurse-midwife myself,” she told a student paper while in training, according to New York Post.
Some accused her of running a “Colonizer Cee-Lo Club,” a reference to a dice game tied to Black communities.
“Yall playing gentrified cee lo?!” one commenter wrote. Another added, “colonizers be colonizing.”
{{/usCountry}}“Yall playing gentrified cee lo?!” one commenter wrote. Another added, “colonizers be colonizing.”
{{/usCountry}}Historians trace Bunco back to 18th-century England, while Cee-Lo is believed to have been brought to the US by Chinese laborers before gaining popularity in Black neighborhoods. Dice games have existed globally for thousands of years.
{{/usCountry}}Historians trace Bunco back to 18th-century England, while Cee-Lo is believed to have been brought to the US by Chinese laborers before gaining popularity in Black neighborhoods. Dice games have existed globally for thousands of years.
{{/usCountry}}Christy’s post sparks criticism
{{/usCountry}}Christy’s post sparks criticism
{{/usCountry}}Christy’s post sparked more than 100 comments before it was deleted. Screenshots led to further criticism, with one commenter writing, “deleting your post, and all of the labor that we did to educate, is colonial violence.”
{{/usCountry}}Christy’s post sparked more than 100 comments before it was deleted. Screenshots led to further criticism, with one commenter writing, “deleting your post, and all of the labor that we did to educate, is colonial violence.”
{{/usCountry}}Her original form for interested players asked simple questions, including where applicants lived, how they heard about the club, and why they wanted to join. She noted that social media links were optional.
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