Amy Cooper Isn’t a Bad Person: She’s Just White

Amy Cooper is trending because Monday a video surfaced of her, a white woman, falsely accusing a Black man, Christian Cooper, of threatening her and her dog (SN: if you watch the video, the greatest threat to Amy’s dog was Amy).  According to the victim, Christian Cooper, he had asked the perpetrator to put her dog on a leash, which aligns with the park rules.  He could tell the situation was about to get interesting, so he decided to record it.  What ensued was a back and forth where Amy Cooper pulled out her phone told the victim she was calling the police, and professed “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”  This was a bold-faced lie.  By the grace of God, Christian was able to walk away from this situation and post

his video of the incident on social media.

Source @melodyMcooper/ Twitter

People have taken to social media, reading Amy for filth because of her blatantly racist actions.  She’s even lost her individuality and has been amalgamated with the Karens of the world.  Karen (I prefer Terrorist Tammy but Black Twitter hasn’t picked it up yet) is the nice white lady who uses her white privilege to cause harm to people of color, Black people specifically.  Karens aren’t bad people.  They’re white.  Amy isn’t a bad person; she’s just white. And white people gone white people.

I’ve seen white women drag Amy on the internet and rightfully so. I, however, want to wave a cautionary flag to them: there but for grace go you.  White women need to see themselves in Amy Cooper because the potential is there to do exactly what she has done. Categorizing Amy as "other" prevents white women from identifying with her.

Don't otherize Amy; she is not a monster.  She’s not some crazy woman who’s always hated “the Blacks.”  She probably didn’t vote for the current occupant in the White House.  She is a liberal white woman.  So, before the pink pussy hats roll over Amy on the bus they’ve thrown her under, they need to take a look in the mirror.

My friend Aidil Ortiz is willing to hold up that mirror for them.  She posted on Facebook, “I’ve had lots of White people in my life … who would pull a stunt like this if it suited them.”  She went on to clarify, “Maybe it wasn’t a call to the police, but I always recognized it as a call for me to get ‘back in my place.’” Many people of color have had this experience because this is what white women have been known to do.  Aidil’s words hearken back to what African American scholar Dr. Cheryl Harris refers to as whiteness as property.  In essence, being white is like owning something that grants white people privileges, a material wage if you will.  Harris names the right to exclude and the right to enjoyment as examples.

When Christian Cooper told Amy to put her dog on a leash, she responded as if he had damaged her white property.  In her eyes, how dare he, a Black man, tell her, a white woman, to respect the rules.  She’s the one who has the power to do that! In the video, Amy, appearing unhinged (she almost choked her dog) displayed the emotional tension she felt with Christian’s calm confrontation.  Dr. Cheryl Matias, who identifies as a Pinay motherscholar, writes about white emotionalities in her book Feeling White: Whiteness, Emotionality, and Education.  She would characterize Amy as unstable, existing in a state of disequilibrium due to a challenge of her presumed superiority.  Christian’s challenge triggered something deep inside of Amy that may have been resting at the subconscious level: whiteness.

Amy responded to Christian as if he didn’t know his place.  Amy used the call to the police as a way of putting Christian back in a subjugated position, similar to what Aidil mentioned above.  She pulled a dangerous trope of a white woman in distress, even altering the tone of her voice to communicate a sense of emergency.  This is an act of white supremacy.  Black folks aren’t the only ones carrying the spirits of our ancestors.  Amy knew what calling the police would do to a Black man, and she didn’t care.  She had to restore her position of authority by any means necessary, protecting her property.

The world is full of Amy Coopers. They reify white supremacy through both symbolic and physical violence.  Let a nice white lady feel her authority is questioned, and she will go Amy Cooper on you because that is what white women do.