Yesterday, a social media clip went viral that showed Amy Cooper, a white woman, calling the cops on Christian Cooper, a black man. The woman, now dubbed the ‘Central Park Karen’ claimed Cooper was “threatening” her when all he did was politely ask her to leash her dog.
Not only did Amy Cooper lose her job as a result of the incident, but the viral clip kicked off a wider conversation around racism and white privilege.
Following the social media backlash, Amy Cooper issued an apology to CNN, stating, “I am not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way.”
Hear all the details about the viral incident below:
Christian Cooper has also responded to the incident, telling CNN’s Don Lemon, “I think her apology is sincere.”
“I’m not sure that in that apology she recognises that while she may not be or consider herself a racist, that particular act was definitely racist,” he said. “And the fact that was her recourse at that moment — granted, it was a stressful situation, a sudden situation — you know, maybe a moment of spectacularly poor judgment. But she went there and had this racist act that she did.”
In another interview with NPR, Cooper said, “Now, should she be defined by that, you know, couple-of-seconds moment? I can’t answer that. I think that’s really up to her and what she does going forward.”
Cooper said he never expected the clip to go viral the way it did, and added, “I am told there have been death threats and that is wholly inappropriate and abhorrent and should stop immediately.”
“I find it strange that people who were upset that…that she tried to bring death by cop down on my head, would then turn around and try to put death threats on her head. Where is the logic in that?”
Also speaking to the New York Times, Cooper said, “It’s a little bit of a frenzy, and I am uncomfortable with that.”
“If our goal is to change the underlying factors, I am not sure that this woman having her life completely torn apart serves that goal,” he added.
Christian Cooper clearly agrees that Amy Cooper’s words and actions were racist, but it sounds like he also agrees with the mentality that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ Ultimately, the issue of racism is far deeper than one viral social media video, and like Cooper said, “if our goal is to change the underlying factors,” far more work needs to be done until we can live harmoniously.
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