Christian Cooper (no relation), a Black man and a bird-watcher, asked Amy to leash her dog. Dogs must be leashed in Central Park from 9am to 9pm, but in the Ramble they must be leashed at all times. Christian later said that he had been worried about the delicate ecosystem of The Ramble and the way in which the dog might affect the birds.White Violence!
Amy, clearly offended, responded by saying that she was going to call the police on him. The video Christian took ended up online, and almost instantly went viral.
In response to the video, many on social media began to speculate and insist that Amy Cooper was a Trump supporter and a member of the “MAGA” movement.
However, campaign contribution information — with donations to Democrats such as Barack Obama, Pete Buttigieg, and John Kerry — leaked online earlier today appeared to suggest that Amy actually identifies as a liberal. This matters, because in this political era, during this most critical US presidential election, it is necessary that we understand and recognize that white violence transcends party lines and political ideology.
She clearly is a racist, though, and a privileged woman who thinks the police exist to put other people in their place for her.
She clearly is a racist, though, and a privileged woman who thinks the police exist to put other people in their place for her.
ReplyDeleteThat last, if it's an accurate characterization, demonstrates that she's a liberal--they're the ones who expect Government to do for them, absolving them of all responsibility. That's not very close to Conservatism.
Eric Hines
It's a fair description of what we used to call Traditional Conservatism. You can imagine the Tory lord thinking that the police exist to keep the lower classes in their place. Order must be preserved, and the better should control the lesser, and the police are not really respected but used by the upper classes for this purpose.
ReplyDeleteWhen I took my political science classes, that was supposed to be the old conservatism that had been replaced by Individual Conservatives long about the Reagan era. Individual Conservatives were supposed to be basically Classical Liberals, except now they were trying to defend the liberal order rather than institute it.
Then there were Reform Liberals, who were about using government to change society 'for the better.' At the left of those, you had progressives and then socialists and then Communists.
I don't know if those old models bear much weight anymore, though. I'm not sure any kind of conservatism is really viable anymore; what's left to conserve? What even would we wish to conserve of what our institutions have become? The picture looked different in the 1990s, but these days I'm doubtful there's much left worth conserving.
I think it's become more of a Declaration of Independence era than a Conserving the Constitution era.
From the link:
ReplyDeleteWe cannot assume that a liberal or even a progressive political future will save Black people from white fragility and white supremacy and white violence.
Nonetheless, that appears to be the assumption of many on the left. Many or most leftists assume that bigotry//racism/what-have-you are confined to the right. Pure as the driven snow, are the liberals. Hillary talking about "Deplorables." Slow Joe telling blacks that Republicans want to put them back in chains.
A long legacy of considering themselves superior doesn’t go away just because someone has a “D” for Democrat behind their name, or on their voter registration..
My experience from being born and raised in deepest lib-land is that a default assumption of liberals is they are superior. It's not white supremacy, but liberal supremacy, or in the case of this Amy, self-supremacy.
Recall Tom Lehrer's lyrics (1965):
"We are the Folk Song Army
Every one of us- cares.
We're against poverty, war, and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares."
I'll stop here.
It's interesting that the black guy is a birdwatcher, which breaks a stereotype about birdwatchers- that they are all Caucasian liberals.
She got fired. Which may be too much, but can also be seen as a case of making liberals get judged by the rules by which they judge others.
I think it's become more of a Declaration of Independence era than a Conserving the Constitution era.
ReplyDeleteIt's still an era of conserving both of our social compact documents. Our Constitution hasn't changed overmuch, only the institutions charged with preserving it have--or, rather, the men populating those institutions have lost our (not their) way.
Eric Hines
Would his facebook post admitting that when she said she didn't want to take the dog to the other side of the drive, he said- "Look, if you're going to do what you want, I'm going to do what I want, *but you're not going to like it*." and then trying to call the dog over. There is no question she acted badly, but it's not like his actions were much, if any better.
ReplyDeleteI’m chiefly reacting to the idea that this was “violence,” let alone that it somehow implicates an entire group of people who were not even present: “white violence”!
ReplyDeleteNo, it’s a single idiot. Maybe two idiots; but no violence of any kind. The police can be a source of violence, and one should be wary of involving them instead of resolving problems like adults. But the police did no violence here! This is one occasion where they did no wrong, abused no power, and seem to have been the ones who kept their heads.
I have seen people describe it as "two Karens" that said, the lady got fired, the dog got taken away (which was probably a good thing, given how she was choking the poor thing), and again, she got fired, from what I'm pretty sure (being head of a Divison at Franklin Templeton), was a six figure salaried job.
ReplyDeleteWhooo weee.