Bird-watching While Black

[theguesser]

https://thebulwark.com/bird-watching-while-black/

 

 

 

Bird-Watching While Black

The shameful racist incident in Central Park can still end in grace.

by MONA CHAREN

 

MAY 27, 2020 5:22 AM

Film subjects Chris Copper and the "matriarch of Central Park Bird Watching" Starr Saphir attends the HBO Documentary Films Celebrates "Birders: The Central Park Effect" With A Picnic In The Park on June 26, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for HBO)

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Alifelong bird-watcher ventured into a section of New York’s Central Park, the “Ramble,” at 7:30 a.m. on Monday hoping to catch a glimpse of waterfowl. In previous days, he had spied scarlet tanagers, ovenbirds, and mourning warblers. As he waited quietly, an unleashed spaniel scurried into the area, as happens frequently in the park during quarantine – though a posted sign notifies owners that all dogs must be leashed.

The bird watcher asked the owner to please leash her dog. She was less than cooperative. According to the bird-fancier, Christian Cooper, the conversation went like this:

ME: Ma’am, dogs in the Ramble have to be on the leash at all times. The sign is right there.

HER: The dog runs are closed. He needs his exercise.

ME: All you have to do is take him to the other side of the drive, outside the Ramble, and you can let him run off leash all you want.

HER: It’s too dangerous.

ME: Look, if you’re going to do what you want, I’m going to do what I want, but you’re not going to like it.

HER: What’s that?

ME (to the dog): Come here, puppy!

HER: He won’t come to you.

ME: We’ll see about that…

I pull out the dog treats I carry for just for such intransigence. I didn’t even get a chance to toss any treats to the pooch before Karen scrambled to grab the dog.

HER: DON’T YOU TOUCH MY DOG!!!!!

That’s when Mr. Cooper began to record the encounter. The dog owner—whose name coincidentally, is Amy Cooper (his reference to her as Karen was a meme about annoying women)—demanded that he stop recording her, and when he refused, threatened to call the police. “Please call the police,” Mr. Cooper responded. Dialing her phone, she warned Cooper, saying “I’m going to tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life.”

Wait, it gets worse. She reaches the police and twice recounts that she is in the Ramble and that “an African-American man” is threatening her and her dog. Apparently dissatisfied by the response this gets from the dispatcher, she ramps up the panic in her voice and cries “I’m being threatened by a man in the Bramble [sic]. Please send the cops immediately!”

The poor cocker spaniel, all this while, was struggling and twisting and being forced to rise to his hind legs as Ms. Cooper kept an iron grip on his collar.

Since the release of the video, Amy Cooper has been fired by Franklin Templeton, where she had been an insurance-portfolio manager, lost her dog to the rescue group from which she adopted him, and become an overnight symbol of racism.

Frankly, I had heard about the consequences before I watched the video and my anti-vigilante antennae were quivering. But the video is jaw-dropping.

It’s possible that Ms. Cooper was overwrought because she misinterpreted Mr. Cooper’s comment that “you’re not going to like” what he would do next. But he reached into his pocket and produced what? A gun? A knife? No. Dog treats. Maybe her imagination ran wild and she feared that he was planning to poison the pooch. But even if that’s the case, she could have picked up her dog and gone home. Instead, she played upon racial stereotypes of “scary black men” to make a false claim to police, and it’s safe to assume, to intimidate him. He merely asked her to respect the park rules. There was zero reason to call the police. There was zero reason to tell the dispatcher that the man was African-American.

I have written in the past about false accusations of racism (although I’ve never denied that racism is real). But this and other recent cell phone videos are grim reminders that racism continues to have real, and sometimes deadly, consequences. Eric Garner. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis this week after an officer held him down with a knee on his neck. They and others are evidence of what actor Will Smith said in 2016: “Racism isn’t getting worse. It’s getting filmed.” (The four officers who were involved in Floyd’s case have been fired and the FBI is investigating.)

Amy Cooper told CNN that her “entire life” is being destroyed by this. She has apologized and claimed not to be a racist. Does anyone ever admit to racism? I think even David Duke claims that he’s merely standing up for white people.

Still, Amy Cooper can salvage some grace from this awful fall from it. She can start by confessing that, yes, she is a racist, and vowing to change. She can volunteer for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America or the Success Academy or some other organization that works to make life better for African-American kids. She can study up on the history of slavery and Jim Crow. And she can send a check to the ASPCA while she’s at it. She understandably feels that her life is being “destroyed,” but if she handles this right, it could be vastly improved. She could become a symbol of redemption instead of sin.

Mona Charen

Mona Charen is a nationally syndicated columnist, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a contributor to The Bulwark, and host of The Bulwark’s Beg to Differ podcast.

[Boatboatboat]

Ill admit

I am very curious what his intent to do was with the dog

[MadTiger]

Ill admit

I am very curious what his intent to do was with the dog

He (this is a slightly-weird mofo) keeps dog treats in his pocket. When he encounters people in the parks who don't have their dogs on a leash, he feeds treats to the dog. Most people get mad at that, and put their dog on the leash. His passive-aggressive ploy wins.

[IAG]

Ill admit

I am very curious what his intent to do was with the dog

 

I think he just wanted him to be still for a while, so he wouldn’t be running around disturbing the birds. 

[Boatboatboat]

I like birds

[Boatboatboat]

He insinuated he would harm the dog if her description of what he said is accurate

[RaiseThese]

Shit I thought that was a picture of MT bird watching....

[MadTiger]

He insinuated he would harm the dog if her description of what he said is accurate

Her employer (Franklin Templeton) listened to her tell that description of hers, and it ultimately resulted in her termination. They called bullshit on her to the tune of high-five, low-six figures a year.

[RaiseThese]

He insinuated he would harm the dog if her description of what he said is accurate

Nah,,, he was just using a  passive aggressive ploy to contain entitled whitey

[MadTiger]

Shit I thought that was a picture of MT bird watching....

Many of the older guys here have seen me before. They just didn't know it. From 1986-1986, I wore a moustache and I looked EXACTLY like

 

Shawon Dunston.

[MadTiger]

Nah,,, he was just using a  passive aggressive ploy to contain entitled whitey

That doesn't pass the smell test.

 

A man engaged in a hobby that is 99.9% nerdy-whites in this country has NO problem with whites in general. That would be the normal assumption for a man who is so involved in bird-watching that he is on the board of directors for a NY bird watching association.

[RaiseThese]

for reference

 

[Boatboatboat]

Yes

From a PR standpoint they felt it best.

I do struggle with employers reaching that far into ones personal life.

 

But had they not. Headlines next day.

 

Franklin Templeton mutual funds employee racist.

 

What ya gonna do?

[MadTiger]

Yes

From a PR standpoint they felt it best.

I do struggle with employers reaching that far into ones personal life.

 

But had they not. Headlines next day.

 

Franklin Templeton mutual funds employee racist.

 

What ya gonna do?

She admitted she was wrong. She never imagined it would get national and international news, and her terminated from her job.

[MadTiger]

for reference

 

 

Much, much smaller on the moustache. That Steve Harvey/Fu Manchu shit never was my thing. Something in between that thing and a Billy Dee lounge lizard moustache.

[Boatboatboat]

Ok so in her off time she was wrong.

 

Do you believe she should have been terninated?

[RaiseThese]

That doesn't pass the smell test.

 

A man engaged in a hobby that is 99.9% nerdy-whites in this country has NO problem with whites in general. That would be the normal assumption for a man who is so involved in bird-watching that he is on the board of directors for a NY bird watching association.

What does his love for bird watching have to do with disdain for entitled whitey who wont leash dog.

The gambling forums are a hobby for mostly white males, doesnt change your opinion of whitey, good or bad. If you enjoy talking about gambling then

this is who you communicate with.

[MadTiger]

What does his love for bird watching have to do with disdain for entitled whitey who wont leash dog.

The gambling forums are a hobby for mostly white males, doesnt change your opinion of whitey, good or bad. If you enjoy talking about gambling then

this is who you communicate with.

When I see racial slurs, it does change my opinion of some people here.

[Boatboatboat]

As it should

[MadTiger]

Ok so in her off time she was wrong.

 

Do you believe she should have been terninated?

 

I don't have access to the contract she signed. But, there is some verbiage in there about not bringing ill repute on the company, no moral turpitude, or whatever, and it's purposefully vague.

 

EDIT:

 

I turned down two teaching jobs, and one had a condition worse than the above. Since the school had some kind of religious background, the instructors had to agree to not go to bars or nightclubs, etc. Some other shit I can't remember. They tried to spring that on me at the last minute, thinking I would continue the process. In my mid-thirties? I am partying.

 

Moral turpitude. Frowned on at most places. Probably a requirement for this fuckin' place.

[theguesser]

Ok so in her off time she was wrong.

 

Do you believe she should have been terninated?

I don't.   It's kinda scary that you can't have a bad moment in public, without it costing you your life that you worked hard to get.   I think a more appropriate action for PR purposes for FT would be a well publicized suspension without pay for a few weeks,  with some sensitivity training, and a media mea culpa tour with the bird watcher, if he 's a reasonable person and is willing(and he seems to be) , to be the co voices against racism, for tolerance, and for common sense and decency.   Might not have satisfied the angry mob, but it would have been better for all concerned.  

[jts1207]

He insinuated he would harm the dog if her description of what he said is accurate

 

That's his description of what happened before recording

[Boatboatboat]

A beer summit

[MadTiger]

A beer summit

The best plotting for the founding of this country was done by smugglers drinking beers.

[RaiseThese]

Maybe she is just frustrated and needs Tyrone to give her a call.

 

Put that spoiled dog on a leash and make him watch her taking it doggy-style

Seems like best solution to problem.