Says Sarah Jeong said, "We need a castration lottery for white men. Every month we pull a birthday, sort the excess and snip some sacks, preferably in a big public gathering."
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Brian Kolfage, center, sits in a wheelchair during the National September 11 Memorial and Museum's "Salute to Service" tribute honoring U.S. veterans in New York. (AP)
No, Journalist Sarah Jeong never called for a ‘castration lottery’ of white men
If Your Time is short
• Jeong never said this.
• The quote is one of a series of fabricated statements that first appeared on 4chan in 2018.
Brian Kolfage, founder of the "We Build the Wall" organization, has repeatedly attacked federal prosecutors who have indicted him for allegedly defrauding investors of hundreds of thousands of donors.
In one of these instances on Sep. 20, Kolfage posted on Facebook an image of a fake quote attributed to former New York Times editorial board member Sarah Jeong.
"We need a castration lottery for white men. Every month we pull a birthday, sort the excess and snip some sacks, preferably in a big public gathering," reads the quote next to a picture of Jeong.
Kolfage’s Facebook post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
In a caption accompanying the post, Kolfage drew a parallel between Jeong and the U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of New York who indicted him and three others on charges they defrauded donors to We Build the Wall, a nonprofit created to help fund construction of a wall along the Mexican border. "She must be the script writer for SDNY investigations," Kolfage wrote. "That indictment read like a NYT piece that was fully scripted."
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To be clear: There is no evidence Jeong ever said this. Nowhere on social media has Jeong advocated for a "castration lottery" for white men. Nor has she written anything along those lines in her extensive body of work.
Early iterations of the fabricated quote shared by Kolfage appeared on 4chan in August 2018 along with a series of other posts falsely attributed to Jeong. On one of the threads in which it appeared, other 4chan users called the quote’s veracity into question.
When Jeong joined the New York Times editorial board in August 2018, detractors surfaced a series of tweets dating back to 2013, which they claimed showed anti-white bias. Jeong said that the tweets were meant to be sarcastic responses to racist and sexist harassment she had received, but people inundated her with death threats.
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Contacted by PolitiFact, Jeong confirmed that the quote was false.
Our ruling
Kolfage falsely attributed a quote to Jeong. "She has never called for a "castration lottery" of white men. The fake quote first appeared on 4chan when Jeong was the subject of an internet controversy.
We rate this claim False.
This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.
Our Sources
Department of Justice, "Leaders Of ‘We Build The Wall’ online fundraising campaign charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors," Aug. 20, 2020
Department of Justice, "United States v. Brian Kolfage, et al, letter," Aug. 28, 2020
Detroit Metro Times, "Macomb County pastor admits to using church email address to harass NYT reporter," Sep. 16, 2020
A Facebook post, Sep. 20, 2020
New York Times, "When the internet chases you from your home," Aug. 15, 2019
Snopes, "Did Sarah Jeong tweet that she hopes ‘bald white kids’ have leukemia?" Oct. 17, 2018
Vox, "The "controversy" over journalist Sarah Jeong joining the New York Times, explained," Aug. 3, 2018
Washington Post, "An Asian American woman’s tweets ignite a debate: Is it okay to make fun of white people online?" Aug. 3, 2018
A 4chan post, Aug. 5, 2018
A 4chan post, Aug. 4, 2018
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No, Journalist Sarah Jeong never called for a ‘castration lottery’ of white men
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