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This A*y Coo*er case is an excellent textbook example of white supremacy and racism at play, and I’m therefore dedicating this #thread to it. White supremacy is the condition under which unopposable white dominance is established in the social sphere.
#AmyCooperIsARacist https://twitter.com/manishakrishnan/status/1265290390598332416">https://twitter.com/manishakr...
#AmyCooperIsARacist https://twitter.com/manishakrishnan/status/1265290390598332416">https://twitter.com/manishakr...
Any challenge to white dominance, privilege and comfort in a social setting by POCs - a social group that operates only secondary to whites, and on the margins of society - is met with irrational, racially-charged hostility.
This was precisely the case when Christian Cooper simply asked A*y to put her dog on a leash - to follow the rules. And this is fascinating because it is the exact reverse of this trend that is used to criminalize POCs.
This is the racialized nature of who the rules & regulations do and do not apply to.
POCs will often find themselves policed by white citizens in their vicinity who deem their behaviour to be violating some convention, rule or law (could be as simple as ”being too loud”), while white people doing the same goes unnoticed. Why?
Because POCs aren’t humanized the same way white people are humanized by our media, the education we receive, our institutions, and by us as individuals. This renders them easier targets for people to pick on and harass, much like cops do and have always done.
Now when a black man tells a white woman to follow the rules, something POCs are used to being told repeatedly by white folks, A*y feels “threatened” and “scared” because her privilege and dominance is threatened by someone in the structural peripheries.
She goes on to say that her “entire life is being destroyed”, another show of how pointing out her harmful, racist actions threatens her comfort and entitlement that comes with being white, w/o for a moment considering how her actions continue to traumatize entire communities.
THIS is today’s racism. There is no longer the binary white folks tend to defer to when they claim, “But I’m not a racist!”
Yes, you may not be a bigot** but have you actively worked towards dismantling the ever-so-present INSTITUTIONAL normalization of white dominance and supremacy at the expense of other communities? The answer for most, I can tell you, is no.
And if y’all want “pRoOf”, these are Facebook comments on CTV News’ article on the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota as they knelt on his neck.
Also, let’s remember that these are real Canadians that live among us.
Also, let’s remember that these are real Canadians that live among us.
TLDR; We are MUCH faster to police, criminalize and engage in finger-wagging towards POCs and this A*y Coo*er story, where the reverse seems to have occurred, reveals, on full-display, white fragility and the perceived threat to white dominance and supremacy in public spaces.