After threatening Black influencer Sasha Exeter’s career last week, Jessica Mulroney continues to experience the consequences of exploiting “textbook white privilege” and going full Amy Cooper: A charity she co-founded with Mulroney family members is the latest to cut ties with the disgraced stylist.
The Shoebox Project announced her departure from their organisation, a week after Mulroney’s hurtful comments towards Exeter came to light.
“In light of recent events, the charity supports Jessica’s decision to step away from the Board of Directors,” the charity stated in an Instagram post that omits naming the specific nature of Mulroney’s actions.
Founded in 2011 by Mulroney and sisters-in-law Katy, Vanessa, and Caroline, The Shoebox Project gives shoeboxes filled with essentials and gifts to vulnerable women. The Instagram statement went over its commitment to Black and Indigenous women, ending with a pledge to “make race an ongoing conversation that occurs regularly and at every level of our organization.”
Many aren’t letting Mulroney's racist actions off the hook
As Refinery29 writer Kathleen Newman-Bremang puts it, what transpired between the renowned stylist and Exeter, a single mom with an emerging online career, wasn’t a mere “disagreement;” Mulroney, a white woman with immense social clout, threatened the livelihood of someone much more disenfranchised because she believed a general call-to-action for Black solidarity was aimed at her. Exeter laid out the disturbing messages Mulroney sent to her on her social media, including a threat to file a libel lawsuit.
“Imagine telling a Black woman that her voice doesn’t matter while people are literally chanting the opposite in the streets at anti-Black racism protests around the world,” Newman-Bremang wrote. “The caucacity.”
It’s almost poetic justice that Mulroney’s attempt to take away income from Exeter has backfired, resulting in the loss of partnerships and sponsorships from numerous brands like Smash + Tess and Hudson’s Bay. And don’t expect to see the stylist providing commentary on “Good Morning America,” nor her show “I Do Redo” on CTV anytime soon.
Mulroney has apologised publicly three times (and now has a Black Lives Matter resource link at the top of her Instagram profile), however Exeter claimed the 40-year-old threatened to sue her for libel shortly after Mulroney’s first attempt at an apology, an Instagram comment which she later deleted.
The Toronto socialite has often used her friendship with Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, as a business asset. It’s a connection that has led to international coverage of Exeter’s plight, but the former senior royal hasn’t publicly sided with her friend. (And as The Kit notes, has no obligation to do so.)
Unnamed sources suggest Markle is distancing herself from Mulroney, as she sets her sights on more important matters: Ironing out the issues with her upcoming charity (which Mulroney was happy to make headlines for not trademarking earlier this year), volunteering with local LA charities to help those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and supporting Black Lives Matter, the latter only possible because of her exit from senior royal life.