Claudia Oshry, best known as @GirlWithNoJob on Instagram, was outed by The Daily Beast as the daughter of famed anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller.
In a sane world, we’d all collectively shrug at this news, just like we did when finding out that Amy Schumer is New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer’s niece. Except, Pamela Geller is an anti-Muslim activist who wrapped herself in the banner of politics and made a career out of opposing Islam and its practitioners. The mother of the @GirlWithNoJob hosted a “Draw Muhammad” contest in Garland, Texas, and frequently calls Muslims “savages” in her writing. Now, the sins of the mother are visited upon her four kids. Bet Thanksgiving dinner is interesting!
Upon this revelation, Oath Media canceled the Oshry sisters’ talk show, “The Morning Breath,” and all four sisters are losing fans by the thousands. Losing fans means losing sponsors, and losing sponsors means losing income.
There is very little evidence to suggest that the girls share their mom’s extreme views … except for few-years-old tweets against Muslims.
“I can’t help but feel like I’m funding terrorism when I take a cab,” Claudia wrote. Younger sister Jackie wrote, “Hi @POTUS, Can you reimburse me for all the cabs I’m taking bc your piece sh*t of plan to defeat ISIS makes me scared to take the subway? Ty.” Claudia also propagated the Obama-is-a-Muslim lie, and she used a slur against people with mental disabilities.
Claudia was 16 when she tweeted these things, while Jackie was 17. Hardly anyone has fully-formed, rational views of the world at that age – hence, why we don’t let 17-year-olds vote. There is no excuse for anyone to blindly hate another group of people. There is, however, an explanation:
Every child depends on parents to teach them how to interpret the world. Some of us hit the jackpot and grew up with thoughtful parents teaching nuanced views. The Oshry sisters got Pamela Geller.
Fortunately, the Oshry sisters are moving away from their mother’s anti-Muslim vitriol. Nothing they have posted in recent years is Islamophobic. They sent a statement to The Daily Beast, saying, “Our views are separate from our mother’s. Being raised by a single parent, we were taught to make our own choices based on our personal beliefs … We do not condone discrimination or racist beliefs of any kind.”
Claudia Oshry posted a tearful video on Instagram, where she apologized for her “disgusting, vile, stupid tweets.” Oshry’s tweets were unfunny and cruel, but her apology was sincere. Both of those things can be true. The family’s youngest generation has broken away from the hate taught to it by the older generation. That’s a step forward. How many of us have parents or grandparents who hold unfounded biases that we do not share?
The woke crowd claims the apology is incomplete because it does not address “hiding” their mother for so long. The Daily Beast treats the Oshry sisters like they are to blame for their mother’s activism. The hit piece says they went to “great lengths to conceal the identity of their Islamophobic mother.” Those drastic measures include banning social media from Claudia’s wedding this past Fall.
Maybe Claudia and her husband, Instagrammer @BoyWithNoJob, wanted at least some aspect of their lives to be private. Perhaps they wanted to release professional photos, on their own terms, and have exclusive use of the images. Maybe Geller knows that her daughters posting about Captain Morgan and hangover food aren’t great for her conservative brand. Certainly, the daughters know that Geller is bad publicity for them.
These girls are within their rights to not publicize the fact that their mom built a career on ranting against Islam. Being a social media star does not include a “tell us about your parents’ politics” clause. No one owes the world an explanation of their embarrassing relatives. What we do owe the world, however, is to not turn out like them.
Angela Morabito (@AngelaLMorabito) writes about politics, media, ethics, and culture. She holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Georgetown University and has appeared on “On the Record with Greta van Susteren” as well as “Cavuto: Coast to Coast.”
