Blaming 'wine moms' for ICE protests is an old tactic with a new target

There's a young threat to jurisprudence and dictate roaming U.S. Streets.

They're wild. They're unionised. And, if you believe the narrative being pushed by a conservative pundit, they brought wine.

On Sunday, Fox News posted a column singling out "organized gangs of wine moms" in Renee Nicole Good's death at the hands of immigration officers in Minneapolis, saying "self-important White women" are harassing law enforcement officers and mistaking civil disobedience with breaking the law.

"This very confusion got 37-year-old Renee Good killed," wrote opinion columnist David Marcus.

Online reaction to the column has been swift, but beyond the mockery, it comes amid what many experts have said is a concerning narrative playing out in U.S. Politics right now.

Because it's not just about one column in one media outlet, but what it shows about the overall response to Good's death and those who don't agree with the administration's tactics, says Shana MacDonald, the O'Donovan Chair in communication at the University of Waterloo who researches digital media and the rise of online hate.

STOP THE MADNESS: "What we are seeing across the country as organized gangs of wine moms use Antifa tactics to harass and impede ICE agents is not civil disobedience. It isn't even protest. It's just crime," writes David Marcus. <a href="https://t.co/DQwMTRQlKi">pic.twitter.com/DQwMTRQlKi</a>

"We're seeing is this shift within the way the U.S. Administration communicates to produce public enemies through their language," said MacDonald. She cites the example of U.S. President Donald Trump calling protesters "professional agitators" and ICE agents "patriots" on Truth Social Thursday.

News outlets that support the administration's actions are using similar communication strategies, she added.

Minnesota takes anti-ICE push to court

Good, 37, was killed after being shot in the face by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis last week during a massive immigration crackdown that has seen thousands of officers sent into the Twin Cities. 

The killing immediately drew duelling narratives. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the ICE officer acted in self-defence, while Democratic officials said the Trump administration was lying.

In the aftermath, Noem called Good's action's "domestic terrorism." Trump told the New York Times that Good "behaved horribly." Vice-President JD Vance described Good's death as "a tragedy of her own making," and further described her as a "deranged leftist."

The New York Post, in a headline, described Good as a "Warrior of the Left." A Fox News host, in a news story identifying Good as the victim, called her "a self-proclaimed poet from Colorado with pronouns in her bio."

On X, conservative talk radio host Erick Erickson called Good an "AWFUL (Affluent White Female Urban Liberal), adding "progressive whites are turning violent." And then, on Sunday, Fox's Marcus wrote about "deluded wine moms" committing "deadly crimes."

Although the Fox News story is one opinion piece by a conservative pundit, it is part of a pattern of blaming protesters to justify excessive force or violence toward U.S. Citizens, says Michelle Chen, an assistant professor in communications at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., who studies digital media and social movements.

It's a distraction tactic, Chen added.

On social media, meanwhile, some moms in Minneapolis have been posting videos in which they suggest they're not distracted at all. Like "Ms. Nicole," a single mom who has been documenting daily life with ICE cracking down in her city.

"I can't wake up tomorrow morning and take my kids to the library or to the grocery store without carrying four passports around with me," she said in a video posted last week. "I can't go to Walmart ... Because of the way that I look, even though I'm a citizen."

Yelena Kibasova, who usually posts about her kids, youth hockey and fitness, said in a TikTok video this week (with nearly 50,000 views) that she can hardly describe the fear of looking out her kitchen window and seeing ICE agents in her neighbourhood.

"That's why we moved to America, is to avoid things like that," she said.

Other Minneapolis women have also spoken out about being characterized as wine moms. Adriana Goblirsch, who lives in the Twin Cities metro area, called the description "hilarious."

In a TikTok video posted Wednesday, Goblirsch said what's actually happening is mothers are paying attention — they're noticing when neighbours are afraid to leave their homes, when schools and daycares ask for ICE protocols, and when families are being impacted.

"So, yes, mock us. Try to shrink us into stereotypes. Call us 'wine moms' if that makes you more comfortable," she said.

There's nothing new about mothers organizing and being political, said activist Reshma Saujani in a viral Instagram video. She points to the Suffragettes in the early 20th century, Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the 1980s, and Moms Demand Action, which pushes to end gun violence, as a few notable examples.

"What feels new is the anger being directed toward mothers who are entering the public sphere," Saujani said.

It wasn't that long ago that Vance said "childless cat ladies" were ruining the country, Saujani continued — a comment the vice-president made in a 2021 interview which resurfaced during the 2024 election campaign.

The common thread is ridicule against women who dare to use their voice, Saujani says.

"That tells us something about the con we're being sold — that the only acceptable way to be a mom is to be quiet, to stay at home, and to be out of the public view."

Vance blames ICE shooting victim for 'tragedy of her own making'

The practice of delegitimizing protesters to influence public opinion about their goals is also not new, says Chen, at Brock University.

The media sometimes frames protests negatively, focusing on violence, lawlessness or name-calling — like "wine moms," she added. It's been seen it in past U.S. Protest coverage, Chen says, like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, when protesters were sometimes described as "extremists" and "angry mobs."

This has especially been common with protests involving minority populations, Chen says, but what's different now is their target.

So-called wine moms have typically been a valued voting demographic in the eyes of politicians, says MacDonald, the University of Waterloo communications expert. If we're going by stereotypes, they're middle-class, suburban, have money for leisure, and white, she added.

"To turn that, and then make it an enemy is startling," MacDonald said.

Senior Writer & Editor

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