As many of you may have heard by now, another black man was targeted by a white woman using her “white privilege” as a weapon. The victim who filmed the incident has been identified as Christian Cooper, a former editor for Marvel who introduced the first gay character into the Star Trek comics, according to Advocate.
Christian posted early Monday morning on his Facebook page about a woman who’s “inner Karen fully emerged”, after he kindly asked that she keeps her dog on the leash per Central Park’s rules.
Amy Cooper intentionally let her dog run loose in a very sensitive area of the park where birds frequent. Christian, an avid bird watcher decided to speak up, simply because it is against park rules to let your dogs run free.
Christian explained that as soon as the woman began to cause a fuss, he began to record the incident with his iPhone. Sadly, this is becoming something so common today. As an African American simply living your day to day life, you may very well become the victim of a racially charged incident.
The video, now seen by millions across the world, shows Amy becoming visibly upset after Christian pulled out his phone to record her. Feeling challenged, Amy decides to call the cops and says, “I’m gonna tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life”.
Despite Amy charging at Christian and pointing her finger in his face, he remained calmed, stating, “Please don’t come close to me, please tell the cops whatever you’d like!”
Amy follows through with calling the cops, even going as far to make her voice shake to show she is in fear. Amy also mentions Christian’s race multiple times within the video.
This incident takes place in a time where it is not only scary to just be African American, but also African American and a member of the LGBT community. We are happy Christian is doing well, as this could have gone a multitude of ways.
Amy Cooper has since apologized for her behavior, claiming she is not racist. She was previously placed on administrative leave from her position at an investment firm. However, she has now been fired from her job. The company released a statement via Twitter,
"Following our internal review of the incident in Central Park yesterday, we have made the decision to terminate the employee involved, effective immediately. We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.”
Since the video had gone viral, social media is in yet another uproar against #Karen’s all across the country. Christian Cooper has said he is not seeking any more punitive actions against Amy.
