Birders unite
Audubon Society statement on Incident in Central Park’s Ramble:
“Black Americans often face terrible daily dangers in outdoor spaces, where they are subjected to unwarranted suspicion, confrontation, and violence,” said Audubon SVP for State Programs Rebeccah Sanders, who is white. “The outdoors – and the joy of birds – should be safe and welcoming for all people. That’s the reality Audubon and our partners are working hard to achieve. We unequivocally condemn racist sentiments, behavior, and systems that undermine the humanity, rights, and freedom of Black people. We are grateful Christian Cooper is safe. He takes great delight in sharing New York City’s birds with others and serves as a board member of the New York City Audubon Society, where he promotes conservation of New York City’s outdoor spaces and inclusion of all people.”
Twitchers Rule!
Might be a faint one, but perhaps this could be the last squawk of American racism.
I sincerely hope you are right, but I have a feeling that this is just the old misogyny coming into play, whereby a successful man – even if he is black, and thus below all white men in the hierarchy – still counts higher than a woman. She’s getting more flack for threatening murder-by-cop than white men, especially those in uniform, are getting for actually murdering black men.
Don’t get me wrong – I abhor what she did. It was vile, and she deserves serious consequences. But a lot of white men deserve far more serious consequences; and we all know that they won’t be facing them. Modern capitalist societies rely on punching up being regarded as a terrible thing, and punching down being seen as acceptable, in order to work.
Well, that is true of all social hierarchies.
In remnant British feudalism, men were regarded as superior to women of equal station, but women a rung or two above nobles of the male persuasion had a right to deference on that account; which when you think about it, is the only way such a system could work. Otherwise a duchess could find herself having to curtsy before a mere knight of the realm, or (God forbid) a lowly bank manager. ;-)
While feudalism and all its trappings collapsed in 19th C Europe, it managed to survive in Britain. ‘Captains of industry’ (capitalists) are routinely rewarded with titles admitting them to the nobility: highly sought after and prized in most cases.
tigger @ 3 – I do wish the “Karen” thing could have been left entirely out of it.
Sigh. I just had a slight tantrum about the racist aspect on another thread, but yes, there’s a sexist aspect too…though not, as far as I know, from C. Cooper himself. (But his sister presented the video with a “Karen” and I wish she hadn’t.)
The “Karen” concept of the “let me speak to your manager” type could be useful and funny. It’s too bad it got tied up with an offensive specific physical description of a woman.
The cops who killed that guy have been fired, are being investigated for criminal and civil right violations, and have large protests against them happening. I think that is more flack than Ms. Cooper has received (fired and dragged on Twitter). I know people are rightfully pessimistic that they’ll ultimately go to prison, but I guess we shall see.
Not really. Female hate-figures aren’t really useful and funny in a context where relentless contempt for women is commonplace.
OB @ #7:
“Female hate-figures aren’t really useful and funny in a context where relentless contempt for women is commonplace.”
Would I be right in reading that as “female hate-figures are never useful?” I am thinking of examples like Bloody Mary of England and Catherine de Medici, living in just such times.
Power corrupts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_I_of_England
http://www.historiamag.com/5-infamous-female-poisoners/