29 Sep When Charity Goes Wrong

About 12 hours ago in Paris, Lindsay Lohan — someone I used to describe as a “problematic fave” — livestreamed herself on Instagram as she approached a homeless family she described as “Syrian refugees” to offer help. “I want you to tell America what you need, and I will get it for you,” she says as she points her camera at them. Lindsay tells the family — a man, a woman, and two young boys — that she wants to get them a hotel room for the night because she feels terrible seeing the children on the street. First, she offers to hotel room for just the kids, and when that was rejected,  she offers the hotel room to the woman — their mother, I presume — and the two kids. They decline again.  The man was never included in the deal.

The whole time, Lindsay goes back-and-forth between speaking Arabic and speaking English in an Arabic accent. I was impressed with the former until I read on Twitter that a lot of what she was saying was, according to Arabic speakers, gibberish. But wait, there’s more.

Visibly uncomfortable because this random woman is bothering them, the family begins to walk away with their few belongings — Lindsay Lohan, who is all by herself, follows them. The stream appears to skip a few minutes; Lindsay Lohan is now accusing the man and the woman of being child traffickers. “Give me your hand,” she says to one of the children. The camera isn’t facing anyone, so we don’t get to see exactly what happens, but right after saying that, we hear the mother yell and we see the camera’s view drop to ground level. Lindsay has been shoved, it seems. She lets out that unmistakable cry that white women do when they are struck in a confrontation that they initiated. Click here for a perfect example of this.

This entire interaction was absurd. First of all, why are you recording these people who were simply minding their business? If this was a genuine act of charity, why did the world need to see it? Why can’t you grasp the idea of your charity being rejected? And how dare you try to take someone’s child against their will? This is some Madonna shit.

Also, for someone who is supposed to be feigning compassion, she says a lot of ridiculously insensitive things. At one point in the video, she says to the mother: “You should be a hardworking woman, and you should be doing what you do for you children to have a better life.” Like…what in the actual fuck? How do you know she isn’t hardworking? And if she is a refugee like you say she is, wouldn’t that kind of explain her circumstances? Besides, there are tons of hardworking people living in abject poverty. Lindsay is nuts.

Now, let’s go back to the fake Arabic she spoke and the English in an Arabic accent. The Arabic gibberish is inexcusable and just plain weird, but I might’ve excused the accented English if she spent long enough in an Arab country — she didn’t. Lindsay spent a few winters in Dubai and now she don’t know how to act. And she actually thinks she’s some kind of custodian of the culture, telling the family that they’re “ruining Arabic culture.” Pure insanity.

Watch the mess of a video below. Skip to 9:20 for the attempted kidnap.