When Samuel Themer was simply “sitting on the train, existing” on his way to work a few weeks ago, he had no idea his perfectly contoured face would soon be plastered on newsfeeds across the world.
The drag performer’s 15-minutes of fame began on Wednesday when a far-right Twitter user shared a photo of him on the New York subway sitting alongside an unnamed commuter, who happened to be wearing a niqab.
The tweet was captioned: “This is the future that liberals want.”
The user meant it pejoratively but, um, noone else really saw it that way.
They’re responses ranged from the non-plussed…
…to the enthused…
…to the just straight-up delighted, actually.
In practically no time at all, a meme was born as a beautifully diverse vision of a unicorn-soaked future packed with power rangers and puppies began to spread in only the way a viral internet gag can.
What many failed to realise was, in fact, the photo had been repurposed once before.
It was originally taken Boubah Barry, a Guinean immigrant, who posted it on his Instagram account as a celebration of tolerance.
“This is how freedom looks,” he wrote beneath it.
As for Themer, while it never occurred to him his daily commute might be a political act, he seemed pretty chuffed to be a champion of diversity.
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Top Comments
Neither of them seem to mind sitting next to each other at all. Right wing propaganda backfiring big time.
That pic was gold! How delightful in capturing the diversity of humankind.
Better than a pic of bloated, florid, sweaty, old, wealthy white dudes signing away women's reproductive rights!