To hope this racist woman loses her job

[TildaKauskumholm]

twitter.com/melodyMcooper/status/1264965252866641920?s=19. Was appalled to see this video on Twitter - a guy in Central park, NYC, who was birdwatching, politely asked a woman to put her dog on the lead as per the regulation in that part of the park. He started filming it as she got abusive and called the cops, to say that she (white) and her dog were being threatened by an African-American man and could they send the police (as we know this can often result in a shooting).All the while she was holding her dog up by dangling it from its collar, half strangling it. The man left and his sister put the video on Twitter, resulting in the racist dog strangler being identified very quickly... she has a high powered job with an insurance company. The animal shelter took back the dog, and her company says she is on 'administrative leave' hopefully meaning she will get fired. I was really shocked and dismayed that such open racism is still going on, even though she was being filmed! Surely she must lose her job at least, what company would want to be linked to something like this?

@Honeybee85, no, just curious how a genuinely nice, friendly woman who was all set to be a great and doting grandma, even letting you, live in her home rent free (and sounds like you will be gifted the house), turned into a raging racist who hates babies.

I think people can get hung up on the semantics of whether racism must include a power element.

I would however hope that most people would recognise that racism is especially dangerous and has a larger impact on society as a whole when it is coupled with power and institutionalised in our society's structures. That's the kind of racism that white people will almost certainly never experience in the UK.

Xenophobia is abhorrent of course it is Pippa - mind you seemed quite happy on another thread to slag off citizens of Sunderland (life ambition to be signed off on the sick, apparently) and Newcastle (full of fighting Geordies with a chip on their shoulder - and anyone with a triple digit IQ leaves). So, perhaps you could focus on your own failings before railing at others.

Wow this Advanced Search feature is a menace

If we were black and living in the US I'd be telling my teen sons to wear a body cam and film if their black friends are approached by a white person.

Her behaviour is tantamount to a death threat tbh

I feel some posters might be missing the point that although many (and I'd hope most) white woman wouldn't weaponise a black mans race in the way this woman did, the uncomfortable truth is that if we chose to we could.

She was absolutely secure in her white privilege in believing that a call to the police accusing an African American man of threatening her life would vindicate her of the violation of park laws that he'd politely asked her to stop.

If she'd been challenged by a white male does anyone really think she'd have had the same reaction?

That's what's so shocking about this video.

It's not just that it demonstrates her prejudice and arrogance but also her innate security in behaving that way because she's confident in getting away with it because of wider institutional and societal racism.

That's why it's not really about all whites women are/are not like this.

It's about the fact that in 2020 we (I speak as a white woman) could choose to be like this when the reality is it shouldn't be an option at all because white privilege shouldn't be a factor.

Just going to leave this latest one here:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/amberjamieson/black-man-died-police-custody-minneapolis?utmsource=dynamic&utmm_campaign=bffbbuzzfeednews&ref=bffbbuzzfeednews

Denial of the racism suffered by centuries of oppressed Hibernians is itself a form of racism.

Denial of the sexism inherent in the term 'Karen' is itself a form of sexism.

The racism- and sexism-deniers on this thread need to be called out, time after time after time.

Anti-Sunderland sentiment can only be properly understood by someone brought up in Ryhope. But you cannot re-write the history of the oppressed Irish from your positions of privilege.

@VladmirsPoutinei I know! I wouldn't usually do this, but thought it was worth putting up the posts previous in the context of the claims.

Also, if someone was racist to me/my baby, I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in their house.

If people say racist things to you on the basis of you being Irish then it would fall under racial discrimination in the equality act. There isn’t a distinction in U.K. law.

Internationally distinctions are made, but some white groups experience racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia - the Roma for example.

The whole continent of Africa and those impacted by the diaspora, including slavery, have been particularly shaped by the experiences of racism and continued colonisation, so will always be a focus of efforts to reduce racism globally. And it’s a massive issue in the states, along with indigenous rights.

But making racism all about the actions of white people narrows what racism is to a point of meaningless. There are many groups of people currently at high risk of genocide. The only group currently at risk from a white group are the Kurds in Turkey, but even then not all Turkish people would view themselves as white. If people start defining racism in such a way that it excludes genocide risk, which would conventionally be considered the most extreme form of racism, then we’re losing an understanding of the scale and nature of the problem.

I think a man videoing a lone woman can be threatening. If a man tried to give my dog treats and was videoing me, I would feel threatened (I will always put my dog on a lead if asked, so in my hypothetical situation this really is uncalled for). I think it’s easy for people to just imagine themselves in that situation. However, when feeing threatened, people will not step into the space of the aggressor. The person will step away from the aggressor and try to distance themselves from trouble and the threat of violence.

This becomes a racially charged event when she uses ‘African American’ 3 times. If it wasn’t racially charged, the phone call would have been to the police that a man was threatening and videoing her. Race absolutely can be used as a descriptor after the incident if you are reporting to the police or if the aggressor is fleeing the scene and is used along with other descriptors. “It was a white man, tall, maybe 6’ 2”. He had a broad built but wasn’t overweight. His hair was brown and cut short. He was wearing a red hoody and dark jeans.” She used no other descriptors. The man wasn’t fleeing the scene. This wasn’t after the fact. In fact, she used the term before she rang the police and no descriptor was needed as she was just talking to (threatening) him. She used his race to get the police there quicker. That makes it racially motivated and if he had been shot, she should absolutely be as culpable as the police.

It’s interesting to see the reactions to this vs the murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams. Liberty German managed to get some video of her attacker before he murdered her and her friend. She’s regarded as having the foresight to record her attacker. This man is criticised for recording an escalation in his aggressor’s behaviour (she was stepping into his space, she was pointing her finger at him, throwing her lead towards him). Two, young, white girls vs an adult, black male.

Can we also point out that race doesn't equal nationality. I think some people get caught up in saying "but I'm not white, I'm from {insert country not ethnically white but still white}". White passing as a minority is an extremely awesome privilege - means you get to live the best of both worlds. You don't experience racism and your ethnic family praise you for being so white/light - yet you still get to claim your ethnic roots. It's really having your cake and eating it. Just brilliant - my sister experiences it, she's got blond hair and blue eyes but she's half black.

She did behave badly, no doubt about it, and I'm sure she knew the consequences of her actions.

I understand why he would film, in order to prove that he wasn't being a threat. Posting it online to publicly humiliate her in this way is no doubt controversial, but perhaps he believes this is the only way for change or for this woman to be punished for her actions.

We also did not see what happened prior to the filming, and I know that the current climate is effecting a lot of people's mental health. Perhaps she is mentally unwell currently.

Obviously racism comes in many forms but from what I have heard and observed (and I am not speaking for all situations) when white people experience racism--it's usually based on ethnicity/nationality rather than the colour of their skin. For instance, white Irish experienced racism in England during the troubles. Polish in the UK experience racism in the UK for being 'foreign.'
My (white) DM lived in the Middle East during the late 70s as she married an Arab (DF). She experienced racism from my DF's family because she was foreign, not because of her skin colour.
But, yes, xenophobia is still racism.

@pinkstar01

I just saw that article in the DM. Utterly fucking horrific.

This is what racist police do when they KNOW they're being filmed. You can only dread to imagine what they do when they're not. I doubt he died in hospital, more likely there and the . This was murder. They should all go to jail for this. Cunts.

I feel some posters might be missing the point that although many (and I'd hope most) white woman wouldn't weaponise a black mans race in the way this woman did, the uncomfortable truth is that if we chose to we could

That's just it - it's hard to look inside yourself and I think it's too uncomfortable for some to do.
I couldn't in a million years do what that woman did but it's scary to think I could.
It's sick and it shouldn't happen.

Hibble, luring someone’s pet away with treats is threatening, because if you have their pet they can’t leave. It would be more threatening during social distancing.

But once she had the dog on the lead it doesn’t make any sense to approach him and call the police. The normal response would be to leave as quickly as possible.

Whilst we are all here pouring out our definitions and experiences of race/racism I'd like to say that the term BAME is redundant and meaningless. POC face different struggles and thus cannot be put together under the catch-all umbrella of BAME.

Outside of the hostility by minority groups to other minority groups I feel it gives white people a license to lump us all in together. Our struggles are not the same.

Can we also point out that race doesn't equal nationality.
This is why I can't stand the term 'African American'. Why do white people not have a similar distinction in America?

@pinkstar01 that is horrific. They murdered that man.

@AKissAndASmile African American is used because most African Americans are decended from slaves, this means many do not know their ancestors country of origin. White people don’t have the same distinction as they were not slaves, so white people do know where their ancestors are from.

Posting it online to publicly humiliate her in this way is no doubt controversial

You should not do anything publicly that you’d be ashamed for the world to see. This isn’t some eighteen year old pissed and on a night out. That’s a grown ass woman being racist and half strangling her dog.

She may be mentally unwell though and that’s the over rider here. She may Suffer from extreme anxiety, paranoia, something, and if she is, hopefully this is the trigger for her to get help or more help.

However as this is clearly racist, and she apparently holds down a relatively senior job, I think it would be very hard for her to continue to work there.

I’m glad the dog has been returned, that dog whimpered in pain at one point, she hurt it the way she was holding it up. I don’t know what the actual fuck she thought she was doing, but she should not be allowed to keep animals. And she should be made to explain to her employer exactly why she thinks the mans ethnicity was relevant.

Akiss, I would assume because slavery denied black people knowledge of their ancestry, so they can’t be very specific about where in Africa they are from, as slavery destroyed family bonds. White Americans are able to say they are Irish American, Italian American etc. Dividing white Americans up into ancestral groups also acts as a justification for imperialism, because they can claim they are Irish, Albanian or similar so it is okay to interfere in the politics or cultures of those countries.

Anyone who thinks recording is unnecessary and aggravates the situation clearly doesn't understand the racism in America, people have been killed for less.
If I was a black person living in the USA I wouldn't go out without a body cam!

People act in ways that they wouldn’t want the world to see all the time. This isn’t 1984.

Unless you’re breaking the law, at work, or presenting yourself as connected to your employer, it should have nothing to do with your job.

If she is found to have made a false report of a threat and broken the law, it could have an impact on her job.

Otherwise people on the internet trying to get someone sacked is just the modern version of social shaming and wanting to act outside of the law. It’s not a good principle for employers to be able to sack people for non criminal activity outside of work.