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Maybe Lives Do Need to Be Torn Apart
Before our nation erupted, Christian Cooper extended graciousness to the woman who had threatened him. The time for graciousness is done.
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As beautiful and powerful as forgiveness can be, I happen to believe that in some circumstances, “fuck you forever” can be just as virtuous. And in the case of a White woman knowingly calling the police to falsely accuse a Black man of threatening her life, completely aware of the potential consequences, then yes, fuck Amy Cooper forever.
Unfortunately, Christian Cooper feels differently. “Any of us can make — not necessarily a racist mistake, but a mistake,” he told The New York Times last week of the incident, which plausibly could have led to his untimely death. “And to get that kind of tidal wave in such a compressed period of time, it’s got to hurt. It’s got to hurt.”
“I’m not excusing the racism,” he continued, before he did exactly that: “But I don’t know if her life needed to be torn apart.”
Let me acknowledge that I am not Christian Cooper. I was not in his situation. Christian Cooper has every right to react to a situation involving Christian Cooper however he sees fit. I’m not trying to take anything more from that man, nor am I attacking the notion of graciousness.
We all make mistakes. But how often are yours rooted in an irrational contempt of Black people? How often do you use your privilege to sic the police on people — over any reason, let alone the pettiest ones possible?
What I am arguing, though, is that forgiveness must be earned. Moreover, there’s something to be said about making examples out of people. So in the case of Amy Cooper, I’m not ready to move along. I refuse to lean into some kind of forgive-and-forget narrative. That is far too great an appeasement to the Amy Coopers of the world.
They do not deserve that and my Black ass will not give it to them. I encourage anyone of…
