Stop Calling The Police On Black People

At this point, millions of people have likely seen the viral video of the woman being dubbed as “Central Park Karen,” who called 911 on an innocent Black man. The incident happened in an area of Central Park known as Ramble, where dogs are required to be on leashes. In the viral video, viewers watch as a confrontation ensues when a White woman who has been identified as Amy Cooper erupts in emotion after a Black man, who happened to be in the park birdwatching, asks her to put her dog on a leash. This is just one of the countless instances where Black people are victimized for doing nothing more than living their lives.

A few years ago, police were called on a group of Black people after neighbors thought they were committing burglary on the AirBnb rental house they had been staying in. In a separate incident, a video of a woman dubbed as Permit Patty went viral. In the video, a White woman named Alison Ettel was seen calling the police on an 8-year-old girl who was simply selling water in a park in San Francisco. At Yale University, a Black graduate student says she was racially profiled when a White student called the university police on her because she was taking a nap in the common room of the dorm. There was also the incident in Oakland, California where a White woman called the police on a group of Black people for simply barbecuing. And who could forget Teresa Klein, the White woman in Brooklyn, New York who called the police on a 9-year-old boy for allegedly grabbing her behind. The footage determined that she was mistaken. In the above-mentioned occurrences, the virality of the videos allowed the world to see how Black people are unfairly stalked, victimized and accused of wrongdoing. History has shown us that a frequent outcome in these situations is death, from Emmett Till to the recent viral video of the brutal killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The silver lining in many of aforementioned situations is that when the world saw what happened, swift actions were taken in an effort to rectify the situation. What is problematic, though, is that once the world forgets about these cases, the accusers are able to resume their normal lives and find gainful employment, with little thought to how they’ve impacted their victims. What all of these situations have in common is that these women who are now being defined as ‘Karen’ feel such a sense of authority and entitlement that they don’t take into consideration how their actions will affect others.

Body cameras and smartphones have become a powerful tool in exposing racism and discrimination. It almost seems incomprehensible that anyone could be oblivious to the consistent and ongoing attacks that Black people face on a daily basis. So, then the question becomes, how do we fix this problem? First, there must be an understanding of the past—the dark history of Black men being wrongly accused of committing crimes against White women. These viral videos that are shared daily provide proof of what Black people have been saying for centuries. Microaggressions and discrimination still exist despite claims that we are in a post-racial era. We have to face the ugliness of bigotry and how it manifests in every facet of a person’s life. Only when those in positions of power and privilege are able to recognize and correct these blind spots will changes happen.