The Hidden Complexities of Being A Racist
Some things are so obvious they should go without saying; the Star Wars prequels were a mistake, thin-crust pizza is superior to deep-dish, Amy Cooper is a racist.
I was so convinced that this last one didn’t need to be said, that even when the occasional blog post popped up implying that Amy was the real victim in her infamous Central Park encounter with Christian Cooper, it didn’t seem to be worth writing about.
After all, the police investigated the incident at the time. Amy was officially charged with filing a false report. There’s a viral video that shows exactly what happened. How could there be any confusion?
It was only a few weeks ago, when I mentioned Amy’s story as an example of overt racism, that I realised there was a problem.
Out of nowhere I began to receive comments and emails politely informing me that there was more to her story than met the eye. Had I read Bari Weiss’ article, “The Real Story of “The Central Park Karen” for further context? Had I seen Christian Cooper’s Facebook post, in which he freely admits to “threatening” her? Had I considered whether this was yet another example of the race-baiting media going too far?
