Before “Karen” and “Becky” there was “John”

Communist Party USA

  Amy Cooper, nicknamed “Central Park Karen,” returned to the spotlight last week. She filed a lawsuit against her employer for firing her after a video surfaced on social media showing her calling the police when birdwatcher Christian Cooper (no relation) reminded her that she was allowing her dog to poop in a restricted area of the park. Amy Cooper retaliated to Christian Cooper’s intervention by calling the cops, saying a Black man was threatening her life. All observers of the video understood that Amy Cooper had used racist white privilege to wield state power through the police against a Black person and that this action endangered Christian Cooper’s life. Let’s stop this narrative briefly. Christian Cooper was concerned that an interaction with police over the dispute endangered his life. This concern reflects the reality of systemic racist police mistreatment of Black men. It needs a critical understanding of the…

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Before “Karen” and “Becky” there was “John”