WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A 2015 essay that says diversity is about wiping out white people is authentic.
OUR VERDICT
False. The article was written by a self-confessed internet troll and published as 'satire'.
AAP FACTCHECK – A fake 2015 article that argues diversity is a way of getting rid of white people has been resurrected on social media.
The article was written under a false byline by a self-confessed troll who was recently released from prison, and both the author and the producer who published it acknowledge it is fake.
Screenshots of the essay are being shared widely on Facebook, with captions such as: "This is woke."
The bogus article was amplified by X owner Elon Musk in a retweet on October 6 to his 202.1 million followers.
The original tweet shared the entire article, adding: "To all those who say this article is fake – It's not, it's very real, it's very disturbing, and it says out loud what woke policies are secretly about."
In his retweet Musk added the caption: "Racism in any form is abhorrent and those who push it should be shunned."
He made no comment to indicate the article was fake.
Musk's post has been viewed more than 15 million times.
Community notes have since been added to Musk's post pointing out the article was fake, but the post had not been taken down at time of writing.
The article was published on May 26, 2015, under the byline "Emily Goldstein" by the online publishing site Thought Catalog. It has since been taken down.
AAP FactCheck asked Thought Catalog why the article was taken down, but multiple emails went unanswered.
The article's full title was: "Yes, Diversity Is About Getting Rid Of White People (And That's A Good Thing)."
The writer argued that "in order for a better world to be created, white people need to be exterminated" and that diversity is "white genocide".
A Google image search of the portrait photo attached to the article reveals it belongs to a legitimate journalist named Emily Goldstein.
An August 16 article on the ProPublica news site, where Ms Goldstein is a copy editor, clarifies that she is not the author of the essay and has never been employed by or contributed work to Thought Catalog.
The article explains Ms Goldstein has been the target of online threats and harassment since the recent resurgence of the article online.