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?

Seriously, is no one else at @memememoi ? I spoke up for @LipsyGirl in good faith and now I don’t know what I’m being accused of? And if I try and stand up for myself I’m accused of trying to drawn her/him out?

AKissAndASmile Perhaps you can tell your DP, that being old isn't an excuse for racism, and yes they do know better. We've had decades of racism education thrown at us, and unless that man has been burying his head in the sand, he knows his words are racist.

I'm a white woman, in my 50s (so I fit in the Karen demographic, and hope I'm not a Karen....), and I have appreciated the education I've received from POC on this thread. I've strived to eliminate racism from my life (and dropped former friends who showed it), but there is always the subtle stuff I haven't understood before, and I am genuinely grateful for the information here.

My ex was abusive, and Brexit really brought out his racist, xenophobic and homophobic views, views I hadn't realised he had as he'd kept them under wraps. I left, with the DC, and I am educating the DC not to have these views. I hope the thread remains, at least long enough for me to talk it through with my DC to show how white people are still trying to minimise racism.

I'm glad that woman has lost her job, she deserved it. What she did was despicable. It is so very, very wrong when we use skin colour as a means to hurt people.

Annamie, google is your friend. If you’re unfamiliar with the territory it could take a few hours. If you want to be an ally you’ll be motivated to do it.

I’m not sure she should be charged with anything, her life as was is over isn’t it? Job gone, so health insurance and home prob gone. Reputation - sunk. Who’s going to hire a racist like that? She’s shamed all over the world. Trying to prosecute her for wasting police time will come to nothing in the lawyer heavy culture of the US.

@CardsforKittens what am I supposed to Google?

UmmH but that is a very vague lead to go on. It is not comparable to what many white Americans can find online with a modest amount of research. They can search ship manifests, which will give you names and dates and places of birth, from there they can go to town hall records all over Europe -- this is all online. In some countries you can search back to the 16th or 17th century. Not everyone can do this, of course, but this is certainly possible for millions of Americans. That's why the geneaology business is booming.

There is nothing comparable for most African Americans whose ancestors were taken to the US before the Civil War, in terms of tracing roots back to a specific African locale. I agree it's not impossible, but the entire process is much more difficult -- and also, I would think, much more traumatic. You are investigating one of the worst atrocities to ever occur in human history, knowing that your ancestors suffered from it. That's very different from looking into records of immigrants who came freely.

@memememoi you apologised to me. Maybe an apology to @annamie wouldn’t go a miss. Things got a little heated & tense, emotions run a little high

Thanks @LipsyGirl, I just don’t understand why I was singled out when MaxNormal, MyohMy and Ratasha also said Memememoi was unfair to you.

The owner of the construction site that Skinrash thinks Ahmad Arbery was casing for a robbery has pointed out that nobody saw the CCTV footage in question before AA was murdered. The owner did not see it and the shooters (whom the site owner does not know) certainly did not. Whatever AA was doing there, the murderers had no knowledge of it having occurred, and it did not result in the murderers having cause to kill him. Here's the site owner's lawyer:

Yeah you're right. I just couldn't be asked to @ everyone and you kept on @ing me.

You weren't the only one- I believe max even used a bit of the angry trope, even though I explained my frustration as black/mixed race woman in a subsequent post...

annamie, you clearly think that memememoi has singled you out unfairly. Perhaps resolution could be found via PM. I am really uncomfortable about a thread regarding racism being derailed at the end by white women demanding an apology from a WOC who has already apologised and explained her reaction to Lipsy.

I only use @ to avoid confusion, for no other purpose Memememoi.

DioneTheDiablist I’m a South Asian immigrant to this country, you can ask MNHQ, l’ve been on MN for years.

I don’t want to derail the thread and had already decided to leave the thread, but saw the post from Memememoi. I won’t post any further.

I forgot that it's America so losing her job means losing healthcare too. Boo hoo. She's a VP of an investment company so I'm sure she's got savings. And will quietly get employed somewhere else soon. The fucker will be fine.🙄🤔

No, I don’t know Maybe if you used sentences longer than 4 words people wouldn’t be so confused @memememoi**

@annamie if you, as a south Asian immigrant, do not know that even the statement above is a tad sus, especially as you knew that you were taking to a non white person (on a post about race no less!!) then I'm not even going to get into the other bits with you.

I would PM you but I cannot see where the PM function is on the app.

No further derailment from me.

I was so shocked when I saw the video and now I am just so shocked at the people defending that woman. At no time did she acted scared or worried about her dog. She nearly strangled the poor creature and now it is back in the animal shelter. She totally faked her "fear" for the police and even mistreated the dog even more for sound effects.

As for giving the descriptor that he is African American, if she wanted them to identify him in a country full of African Americans, she could have mentioned his height and his build. She used African American racistly.

@SoVeryLost that's so depressing, I would have hoped that at least workplaces would take this seriously.

No I didn't use a racist trope, memememoi, I addressed your individual words.

She seemed extremely ‘pumped’ for want of a better word and could easily be interpreted as fear- the same rush of adrenaline for fight or flight. Which makes her lose the plot, attempt to falsely incriminate the man and not realise that she’s also seriously harming her dog who’s desperately trying to wriggle out of grip. I thought there was a genuine reaction there and it’s bizarre, why is she so reactive? If it’s fear or if it’s rage both are racist and based on negative assumptions about him.

I thought it seemed like sheer entitled rage.

TL;DR look up 1-844-WYT-FEAR. If I was that man, I’d be recording it and doing all that I can to stay safe.

It's curious that he was a Harvard grad was brought up - someone said it meant black people had to prove their lives were worthy iyswim. What if he'd been a homeless man who suffered from ill mental health as a result of homelessness? I'd like to think there'd still be outrage but I get the feeling it probably wouldn't be so deep. I think black men in particular are viewed as being quite threatening so I imagine people would have justified the police shooting a black man who seemed not 'all there'.

There is no way in hell you would lift the phone and say “a ginger man is threatening me” or “a man with a glass eye is threatening me” you would say “a man is threatening me” And then when asked to describe him you would say “he’s white, ginger hair, about 5’9”, scar on his left cheek” etc.

True. I was once followed down a street by a man in a car who kept stopping and asking me to get in. I told him to get lost in some very choice language but called the police to stop him succeeding with someone else. I told them a man was following me and it is only when they asked me to describe him that I mentioned his colour and even then they had to drill deeper to get a description. Even though I was upset my concern was that a man was following me, rather than scared as it was a certain race.

I was appalled when I saw that video. The guy actually asked her to keep away from him, and she's throttling her dog and telling the police that he's threatening her life! All because he had the audacity to tell her that her dog should legally be leashed, because he's a birdwatchers.

She knew what she was doing. She was enraged that she'd been challenged on her behaviour, and weaponised the threat of police against a bird watcher.

Let's not forget that at the start of this year a black jogger was shot, and it took MONTHS for it to be investigated (possibly because one of the murderers was a former police officer). Only yesterday, video emerged of police officers kneeling on a black guy's neck, killing him.

This thread has been an education, some really insightful posts that have gave me reason to pause and really reflect.

As far as the filming goes, it’s very concerning that some people insist on focussing on this. There are of course reasons for this, many posters may be totally unaware of the unconscious bias they are displaying.
I am very pleased for mobile phones and the ability to film. What we are seeing is a very small percentage of what goes on everyday. The people caught either with their knees on the neck of men or with their superior threatening racist behaviour have actually tempered their responses because they are being filmed.
There is so much more happening everyday that we don’t ever get to see. Expose them all. Keep filming, they don’t deserve the false status they have created for themselves.
She showed us who she is.

I think the fact that he is a Harvard graduate was brought up to "prove" that he is one of the elite. In other words, part of the patriarchy that systematically dominates and silences women. It was part and parcel of the posts where someone decided to interpret the video as showing the man as the aggressor (the same person who asked us to take race out of it).

Turn it around. Use the twitter video showing an intelligent, softly spoken man who works for a lovely community project trying to preserve wildlife. Show that he would not have been in that area for nefarious purposes as implied by Skinrash. Show that he is a birdwatcher, not a "birdwatcher". Radio silence.

And actually, that's the crux of it. I have a degree from Oxford and 25 years as a solicitor behind me. Yet, put me in department store, or hell, just a supermarket, and I'll be immediately targeted as trouble and have a security person following me around. Being white gives you the benefit of the doubt. Being black or brown - you need to prove that you are civilised.