A White woman, Amy Cooper who called the police on a Black male birdwatcher in Central Park is being deemed as the latest incident of a “Karen”, a reference to a popular joke on social media about White women acting on their entitlement. The makings of a Karen not only have to do with the identity of the perpetrator, a White woman, but her privileged behavior as well.
The behaviors of Karens, like Cooper who is seen calling the police after a Black man requested that she her leash her dog and follow the law, is more than just entitlement. Do not be fooled. Karen’s police call, contrived distress, “African-American man… threatening me” language, and sense of urgency and looming danger in her voice isn’t happenstance. It isn’t fight or flight. It’s Cooper using a system of racist ideas and policies built to protect her and harm the Black birdwatcher. It’s white supremacy.
This is the same white supremacy that killed George Floyd. Around the same time video of Cooper surfaced video surfaced of Minneapolis police kneeling on the neck of George Floyd resulting in his death. We hear Floyd, in pain, cry out for help “I can’t breathe!” A phrase that sounds all too familiar, the modern Black male proverb that seems to always result in death. None of the police come to Floyd’s aid, they are the perpetrators of his pain. They are the perpetrators of white supremacy, this time through police brutality on Black bodies. Again, don’t be fooled. The “resisted arrest” language is intentional. It’s white supremacy.
In both instances, the racist ideas of the “dangerous Black man” is used to warrant violence against Black men who are not acting violently. In the case of Floyd, the police used violent force against a man who was not a threat of violence as he was pinned by the neck. Thus, Cooper’s call to police of a “threatening “African-American man is ultimately a call for imminent violence. Both Cooper and Floyd’s perpetrators functioned from the belief that society values protecting the power of whiteness and allow violence against Black bodies.
Both of these incidents come within the same month that the murderers of Ahmuad Arbery were arrested. Arbery, a Black man, was jogging when he was tracked down and killed by White father and son while another White man recorded the interaction. The actual slaying took place in February; however, arrests weren’t made until months later. In this case, white supremacy, disguised as race-neutral policies of “citizen arrests” once again protected the power of whiteness and harmed Black bodies.
In all of these instances, Cooper, Floyd, Arbery, racist ideas and racist policies were used to keep the status quo of white supremacy. However, it was the voice of the people that brought about action. Cooper was fired from her job. The police involved in the killing of Floyd were fired. The killers of Arbery were arrested, even if months later. While these actions are necessary and appropriate, they are still not enough in dismantling white supremacy. These actions affect the individuals involved, as they should; but in order to dismantle white supremacy and the racist ideas that let it prevail we must change the racist policies that let these systems be subsist in the first place.
A great place to start is by calling these cases for what they are, white supremacy. I get that the humorous moniker, Karen, came from Black Twitter as a way to cope with the harsh reality of white supremacy that Black folks are subjected to day in and day out. We get the joke, we live the joke, and understand that the humor is dark. This is a call to others, White people specifically, who missed the subtext. Say her name, white supremacy.