Giving racist white women "cute" nicknames doesn't really help

 

Does anyone wonder why the media applies “cute” nicknames to certain despicable people? Take for instance “Permit Patty,” “BBQ Becky,” “San Francisco Karen” and “Central Park Karen.” These were among the many white women caught on viral videos committing what the Michigan Journal of Race and Law called “white caller crime” and “racialized police communication,” which seems to be committed by women significantly more often than men. This may be less a function of actual numbers, but in the fact these “nicknames” serve as defensive strategies to “distance” oneself from being “complicit” with these people; they are just oddball “outliers,” like mass shooters must be stereotyped in some way (the “crazed loner”) so that we don’t have to examine the atmosphere of hate from which these people spring.

In some cases, like that of actress Hilary Duff—who accused an older black man taking photographs in a park of being a “pervert” and being part of some “human trafficking” scheme—have their tone-deaf defenders. However, it is worth pointing out that Duff’s “take down” of a conspiracy theory a few days ago claiming that she tried to use her own son as “bait” for traffickers is somewhat ironic, given that it was Duff herself who started her own personal “conspiracy” theory when she falsely accused the black man of being a “child snatcher.”

In the case of “Permit Patty,” she called police to report an 8-year-old black girl selling water without a “permit.” “BBQ Becky” called police on a group that was having a barbecue in a park. Other incidents simply seem to be a case of just being beat on for being there, ignoring perfectly “natural” explanations for behavior that would be seen as perfectly normal for white folks. We’ve seen recent incidents where a Mississippi woman threatened a black couple with a gun for having a picnic at a campground, and an Arkansas woman holding four black high school students on a door-to-door fundraising expedition for the school football program at gunpoint in her yard. Such bullying behavior often seems to be motivated by  a desire to impose “rules” that prevent a person from being “annoyed” by the presence of an unwanted person or group, and calling the police, or threatening to do so, will make the alleged criminals “disappear.”  The Michigan law journal wrote that

Like the innocuous behaviors triggering these reports to law enforcement, the consequences of these calls vary widely. Some conclude constructively, such as one made by a Starbucks employee and which ended in implicit bias training for the company’s employees nationwide, or another call a few years earlier, reporting a Black man entering his own home—which ended in neighborhood programing. Other reports end fatally, as the dyadic deaths of Tamir Rice and Johnathan Crawford III—both killed as the result of calls to the police—demonstrate. What remains constant, however, is that those who make such reports rarely, if ever, face legal consequences for their actions.  And, despite the increasing urgency and awareness of such reports, they have received little attention in legal scholarship.

While some of these people are actually charged with a crime, it doesn’t appear that they actually end-up doing any “time,” let alone paying a fine for public disturbance or detainment. Take for instance “Central Park Karen”—actual name Amy Cooper. A black man named Christian Cooper—who was doing bird watching last spring in an area of the park that was set aside for migratory birds, and dogs were required to be on a leash when traversing the area—told Cooper she needed to leash her dog. 

Cooper became immediately belligerent, and the man started to video her with his phone. She demanded he turn off his phone, and the man asked her not to come close to him. “If you take pictures of me I’m calling the police.” He said “please call the cops.” She called 911, telling the dispatcher that “an African-American man is threatening my life. He is recording me and threatening me and my dog (the dog is still not on a leash, and she appears to be choking the dog by holding it by its collar). Please send the cops immediately.”

Amy Cooper was charged with a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime. The case created international condemnation and Cooper was fired from her job. But yesterday, after things had “cooled off,” the New York Times reported that prosecutors asked the judge to drop the charge against her, claiming that she had satisfactorily completed a “therapeutic education program” about racial bias. This the judge did with unseemly haste. The Times recorded that the prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi, claimed that Cooper’s therapist characterized their sessions as “a moving experience” and Cooper “learned a lot.” This is called “restorative justice,” an “alternative” to “traditional prosecution,” says the Times.

Cooper didn’t even a receive a wrist slap for potentially endangering a life at the hands of a police officer with an itchy trigger finger by falsely accusing Christian Cooper of threatening her life. There is nothing now in her record—a white woman treated differently in a city with an already lousy record of civil rights. Was she even “sorry” about what she did? Her lawyer only made it worse by tweeting “After a thorough and honest inquiry, the New York DA’s office dismissed all charges today against Amy Cooper. We thank them for their integrity and concur with the outcome. Others rushed to the wrong conclusion based on inadequate investigation and they may yet face legal consequences.” Umm…did this guy even watch the video of the incident? Was he threatening the victim?

Black people are not the only ones who have had to endure a hyper-racist white woman: In California in 2018, a Hispanic man and his mother were subjected to racist insults by an unnamed woman while doing yard work. When Esteban Guzman tells the woman that he is an “honest citizen,” she “corrects” him: "Yeah, rapists, animals, drug dealers ... even the president of the United States says so." Need we ask what “president” she is referring to? Guzman later appeared on a news program, stating that he “stood up for everybody that is scared to speak up. I stood up for the little people, for the people that don't have a voice in this country.” Like, say, Hispanics.

There are other ways of “standing up” to people who think you should have no voice and just beat on you for being here—and with no guns or other weapons. On his Unfiltered show, Roland Martin and guests had some fun with a couple of “crazy white people—this is so delicious.” A phone video shows a white couple jumping out of their car to confront a Hispanic couple in a case of road rage. “The white couple was hyped…Cut them off…They stopped their Cadillac SUV…Got out…They were about to whup some ass…But they didn’t realize that they went up against #team whip dead ass…I don’t think that ended up quite how they expected”: