Pregnant NYC Bike "Karen" was the victim, not the agressor

[littleripper]

Trial by social media for a pregnant woman who cried when a man tried to steal the bike she's hired is tried and hung by social media, and put on unpaid leave from her job, with no evidence or investigation:

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a43920956/pregnant-nyc-karen-on-video-trying-to-steal-a-black-mans-citi-bike/

https://news.yahoo.com/receipts-show-hospital-worker-accused-170920174.html

It turns out she had paid for the bike and he has no evidence he paid. But he is not the subject of the internets wrath, no consequences for him.

I hope she takes her employers to court and wins a massive settlement. Surreal levels of misogyny and hatred directed to a pregnant healthcare worker who did nothing wrong at all.

Will this ever be recognised for what it is?

anyone calling it a weapon can fuck right off.

I and others have clearly explsined that it is a weapon deployed by some white women. So yes you did make it personal. But you keep digging.

Calling tears a weapon is incredibly misogynistic.

Of course it is. What else is misogynistic, as declared by women on mumsnet?

There are many reasons why women are more likely to cry than men. Meanwhile, the vast majority of harm done with actual weapons is done by men. Those who don't feel powerless and fearful during a confrontation, but violent.

It's incredibly sexist to say all men don't feel powerless and fearful during a confrontation, but violent.

By the way no one called tears a weapon. People call weaponized tears a weapon. There's a difference.

I didn't order anything from you. I asked questions which you were perfectly free to ignore. It is a forum. Worth noting though that before publishing accusations against someone, it's better to work with the facts rather than your own wild conjecture. Thanks.

White women can harm black women by weaponising their whiteness and 'Fragility'. This is Whole power of 'white women's tears' it doesn't even have to be actual tears. The beginning, the middle and the end. You are as much a potential threat to us as men.

Are white women and their 'weaponised tears' more of a potential threat to black women than all men? Black and brown men included?

Heard it all now. How many white women are out there murdering black women, as opposed to the numbers of men murdering women?

Or raping or mugging them? Or attacking them in dv situations?

But yeah, white women are what's wrong with the world

This has been answered above and many times over.

The convenient comparison doesn't make sense. The answer is obvious.

No, and no one is saying that. White women who weaponise their tears are an addiontal source of trauma for black women. For black and white feminists to come together this threat needs to be dismantled. It can't be dismantled if its existence is denied and black women's experiences are dismissed.

You can always see the similarities between how white women get defensive and say things like 'yes white women are what's wrong with the world, what about men, not all white women are like that, maybe we should stop talking to black women then, black women should stop getting offended' and how men get defensive and say things like 'yes men are what's wrong with the world, what about others/women on women crimes, not all men are like that, maybe we should stop talking to women then, women should stop getting offended'.

Everytime.

But there are very few women who would deliberately cry to cause harm to a black woman. What you are asking is for white women to not express their natural emotions at all in stressful situations because a tiny minority of people have behaved badly.
That's not realistic or fair and it diverts from what are bigger problems for women, which is our physical safety.

Once more for those in the back, not all violence is physical, some is psychological. Should black women consider themselves lucky because the perpetrators are women and it's only psychological?

@HypocrisyRules I think men would struggle to make a legitimate argument that they aren't responsible for most of what's wrong with the world. That does suck for the men who are lovely, but as a class they are responsible for most of the crime and violence. Women aren't. And black women aren't in more danger from white women (as a class) than they are from men.
You will always have individuals who are awful, but you can't reasonably expect everyone else to suppress their natural emotions because of a minority.
Unless you are saying you think a majority of who're women weaponise tears?

But what was said is that white women are as much a threat as men. Which just isn't true. And is a massive generalisation about white womenswear, which if applied to black women would be called racist.

Why don't you look up what the phenonmen of weaponised white tears is about. It's an expression which describes a pattern of behaviour not every time a white woman literally cries. But keep up with the distraction. We know what you are and what you stand for.

Please excuse all my typos. My phone is weird with its autocorrect

@Socrateswasrightaboutvoting I just had a quick google snd some Guardian article came up which said it's a tactic employed by many white women. I think that's a crock of shit. I think a relative few people do this, as a relative few people in society behave badly in other ways.

And if you think you know what I am and what I stand for, don't be coy.

I agree that tears can be weaponised and that historically “white women’s tears” have been given a weight that others’ tears haven’t, especially in the context of the US.

However, the idea that tears can be violence is deeply problematic. Violence, by definition, involves physical force. There is a second definition involving strength of emotion but that isn’t what is meant here either. Violence is violence. Tears are not violence, even when they are weaponised. Words are not violence, even when they are weaponised. The word violence actually means something. Something can be damaging without being violent.

Does this case actually fit the definition of “weaponised tears”? Difficult to say on the information we have, but I personally think a lot of people would have cried in that situation. She had booked out the bike. Whether the young man was mistaken or trying to steal it from her is unclear, but on balance I think mistaken is more likely. She wasn’t trying to steal his bike, therefore I think a lot of people might become overwrought in a situation where they are surrounded by people who are filming them, accusing them of stealing and physically grabbing at the bike they are on. It’s likely an unfortunate misunderstanding that escalated badly. It’s a shame it got posted for the whole world to weigh in on at face value.

It’s a shame it got posted for the whole world to weigh in on at face value.

Doesn't this happen with everything on the internet? Why is this one suddenly such a shame as if it's a new phenomenon? It's really the only time I see people worry about public opinion when we live in the age of public opinion.

Mumsnet is full of stories and videos posted for the whole world to weigh in on and everyone here gladly does but when it comes to a certain white woman displaying white women's tears (I don't mean this woman in particular), suddenly the same thing people participate in becomes a problem and unfair.

Maybe because the woman has been suspended from work, which has more serious consequences than people laughing on sm.

It’s not just a shame in this instance. The current norm of filming confrontations and posting it online is deeply troubling and causes significant distress.

I work in safeguarding in a school and the trouble that is caused by this is ridiculous. Sometimes it’s just creating additional angst and drama but in some cases it’s far worse. This academic year I’ve dealt with teenage girls (I only work with girls) who have had sexual assaults against them filmed and posted online, videos of them having a seizure posted online, phone calls that are recorded and then shared to create drama and fuel horrific bullying and in one of the worst cases a beating of a girl by older teenage boys to the point of hospitalisation was shared far and wide among local teens. It was sickening and the one video that I was shown will haunt me for a very long time. Most of the victims of this have been black teenage girls, including the one who was hospitalised.

You’d think this would be very outing but there have been a number of other black teenage girls in other local schools who have been beaten up by groups of boys where it has been filmed and posted online this year. I’ve never come across it before in all my years in education and it’s an important reminder of why misogyny is deeply dangerous. These boys are being radicalised by internet misogynists telling them things like “equal rights, equal fights”.

That is truly dreadful.
It is just a short step to Pornhub.
Not to mention the appalling actions of the Met Police in recent years.
Horrible.

That is horrific

No excusing needed. There is special place in hell for people who cannot tolerate a few typos.

Absolutely