Last night while my city burned and curfew fell, I sat and watched “Black Panther” and thought about what smug hypocrites White people can be.
A reasonable reaction for a 4-year old; not so much for a grown person, though that is the response from far too many White people whenever a city burns for the same damn reason.
How often have White people sat, full of righteous indignation, through stories, scripted and personal, of Black men being asked what they’re doing in a “nice” neighborhood or driving an expensive car, or of a White person being pulled over for speeding, only to be asked if he or she is all right when the officer sees that the person in the passenger seat is Black?
So it isn’t enough for White people to wear “Black Panther” Tshirts and say “Wakanda Forever,” it isn’t enough to tweet a hashtag or sign a petition or show up for a march if once the fires burn out we all go back to our “normal” lives.
Lately we’ve heard a lot about Karen, a label for White women (and occasionally men) who call the cops or the manager or otherwise hassle people, usually Black or Brown, for doing perfectly harmless things that these women find outrageous.
