While most advocates focus on police abuse of the black community, we must also hold accountable the people who call police and make false claims against black people.
“Newspaper reports are replete with stories of white women harassing black people for having barbecues, selling water, having expired tags, basically, for living while black.”
Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Milwaukee asked a substantial question about justice in the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail? The next day, he continues to publicly ponder: “If you had done it or I had done it, we would be behind bars right now. And I cannot come up with a good answer to that question.” The answer, of course is that white supremacy capitalism has its own protocols and precedents.
The same question asked by Mayor Frey, should be asked of another recent incident, this time involving former Franklin Templeton employee Amy Cooper. Cooper decided to call the New York Police Department, on Monday, May 25th, the same day that George Floyd was murdered and report that an African-American man was about to attack her and her dog. First she threatened Christian Cooper (no relation): “ I am going to call the cops and tell them that an African-American man is threatening my life.” Then she actually called 911 and pointedly lied to the operator: “I’m in Central Park, there’s an African-American male who is recording me and threatening me and my dog and I fear for my life”. When the operator did respond with the level of urgency Cooper expected, she dramatically shouted that her life and her dog’s life was in danger, “please send the cops immediately!”
“White supremacy capitalism has its own protocols and precedents.”
Amy taps into the barbaric veins of white supremacy privilege that allows her and others to wield power over Black men and the Black family, as well. While most advocacies focus on police abuse of the black community, we must also hold accountable the people who call police and make false claims against black people.
This Central Park incident is intricately connected to the history of African oppression, Stephanie Jones-Rogers, in They Were Her Property writes: “slave-owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment.”
But, this behavior, a central factor in the DNA of white supremacy didn’t end with emancipation. White female supremacist privilege, such as the one on display in Central Park, was responsible for the torture and savage murder of hundreds of black men, most notably Emmitt Till, a 14 -year-old boy who was tortured and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending Carolyn Bryant, a white woman in her family's grocery store.
“White women actively participated in the slave market.”
The 1923 Rosewood race riot was triggered when a white woman alleged that a black man had attacked her. The Tulsa massacre began over Memorial Day weekend when 19-year-old Dick Rowland, a black shoeshiner, was accused of assaulting Sarah Page, a 17-year-old white elevator operator. Over 800 black people were injured and scores killed in the massacre. About 10,000 black people were left homeless, and property damage amounted to more than $1.5 million in real estate and $750,000 in personal property (equivalent to $32.25 million in 2019). This is not imaginary power; this is quantifiable and empirical.
Amy was simply acting out her historic white female privilege that could have cost Christian Cooper (no relations) his life, as happened to so many other Black men. But, that was not her concern. She expected to discharge her privilege with impunity and so far, this privilege has not been subject to question. It is not only police that impose deadly force but everyday white “Karens” (a term reserved for entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white women) who place the lives of Black people at risk. Thus, the long history of false rape allegations toward Black men. Even in the past two years, newspaper reports are replete with stories of white women harassing black people for having barbecues, selling water, having expired tags, basically, for living while black.
“Amy was simply acting out her historic white female privilege.”
Why hasn’t the New York Police Department charged and arrested Amy Cooper? Human Rights attorney King Downing noted, “on the criminal side, the clear crime is filing a false police report. On the civil side, there are three civil law violations: intentional infliction of emotional distress and two civil rights violations; filing a false report and the infliction of distress based on race.” However, Mr. Downing laments, “the laws at this point don’t support this, but in reality, her crime was the intentional infliction of white privilege.”
The pink pussy movement started shortly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated as a demonstration of women’s political power and a protest against the rhetoric used toward women and minorities. But, this movement emphasizing the power of women had little to do with amplifying the dire, economic, political, medical, environmental and cultural conditions confronting Black women and women of color.
It should be clear that any women’s movement that does not confront and advocate the dismantling of white female privilege is still actively engaged in operationalizing white supremacy.
Amy Cooper must be charged and held criminally accountable for her attempted harm and possible death of Christian Cooper. It is this kind of public accountability that will protect our sons and husbands from privileged white supremacist women, like her. We need to hold ‘Karens’ like Amy Cooper accountable. This is more than just having her lose her job at an investment group. We must also demand that she is charged and arrested. In addition, while losing her job was a start, we must ensure that her former employer, Franklin Templeton Investments, has not provided her golden parachute to disguise its support for her actions without risk of social backlash.
It is incumbent upon, particularly, anti-racist whites to fight against the white privilege and impunity that has caused the death of so many Black people and the destruction of Black family life.
Southern trees bearing strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Dr. Marsha Adebayo is the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated: No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA. She worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered South African vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit led to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). Marsha was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, March 2017. Currently, she is working to stop HOC from its continue desecration of an African burial ground in Bethesda, Maryland.
Robert Stubblefield is a poet, activist, and organizer in the DMV area with groups such as Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition (BACC), Young People for Progress, and Montgomery County chapter of Democratic Socialists of America. His most recent book Written in Blood: Anthology 2011-2018 is out now.
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