White Woman in Brownface as ‘Chola’ Enrages LA

It’s the kind of story you’d expect to see on TV, but this is real life folks, as strange as it seems.

You have a white woman, Chloe Michalopolous, who masquerades as a “chola” on Twitter and YouTube mocking “cholo/a” culture with what I would interpret downright racist rhetoric.  You have journalists trying to find her true identity.  You have her telling them to buzz off.

Then there are the rest of the “critics” who weigh in.

I personally think this woman should be run off social media because if she was doing what she does to anyone but Mexicans, she would be called out for being a racist.  But it’s okay to make fun of Mexicans, because….well, I can’t figure out why, but apparently it is.

Gustavo Arellano of Ask a Mexican fame wrote a story about it here, a snippet:

“Why Michalopolous doesn’t want anyone to know that she does Ask a Chola, or that she’s not from LA like she claims she is (Ask a Chola previously claimed to be “Soledad,” from East Los Angeles), is beyond me. But the woman is zealous about making sure no one learns she lives in Orange County: about a year ago, someone told me that someone was leaving fliers plugging Ask a Chola at Mother’s Market in SanTana. The person told me because they thought Ask a Chola was ripping me off; I explained the schtick to the person, and they understood. I left a comment on Ask a Chola’s Facebook page asking what she was doing in SanTana, as I always assumed she was an LA product and thought it was cool she was actually from OC. She cracked some joke about needing probiotic food, but then went around, according to my original, demanding to know who told me that she lived in SanTana.”

It’s an interesting story.  Do you think it’s racist for a white woman to blatantly and in a racist way mock Mexicans?  And profit from it?  Thoughts?