The “Karen” phenomena came and went without much lasting impact - because whilst it gave us some excellent memes, and a few good laughs, it fell short of a more meaningful conversation. For what happens when “Karen” isn’t calling a manger, but the police? What if she isn’t complaining about the food being cold, but calling because there’s a black man delivering the mail, and “please please, he’s here, I’m scared and I’m shaking. Please send help!” Such situations lead to more than a silly video or cringey meme. They can, and do, lead to death. We all saw the video of the woman in Central Park calling the NYPD to report “an African American man threatening my life”, for simply… birdwatching. And whilst it may be amusing, it would be less amusing had Chris Cooper not been able to film the entire altercation and keep his cool, as things could have ended very differently. We saw it too when another woman called the police on two men for shovelling snow (for free) on the pavement. We saw it again in Seattle when two black men had the cops called for simply standing outside their own home. Every year 96% of police homicides are against men, and whilst much focus is placed on the cop holding the gun, very little is said about the person holding the phone, who called them – who is able to blend back into the background. So as the world sheds no tears for the death of Carolyn Bryand Donham, whose own false accusation led to the infamous abduction and brutal murder of Emmett Till - a 14 year old boy whose death kick started the Civil Rights Movement, can we talk about the danger of these fraudulent phones calls, and accusations? It’s too late to bring Carolyn Bryand Donham to justice, she’s dead now, but perhaps we can stop the next one? What do you think? ~ Data from deathpenaltyinfo.org/ Images by Ray Zhou, Camilo Jiminez, Gradienta, and Black Kiwi Hug. #blm #blacklivesmatter #karen #emmetttill #carolynbryantdonham #civilrightsmovement

2023-04-30