MONICA MANNEY
Special to the Leader
When you were young, you were probably told to call 9-1-1 when there was an emergency. Maybe the understanding of an emergency has changed or maybe 9-1-1 has become a complaint hotline.
There seems to be an epidemic of white women forgetting that dispatchers answer the phone “9-1-1 what’s your emergency” not “how can I cater to your slight inconvenience that is probably racially motivated.”
From Barbeque Becky to Permit Patty, white women have called the police on people of color for existing in what they have deemed to be their spaces.
Barbeque Becky is the woman who falsely claimed that two black men were not allowed to use a charcoal grill in a park in Oakland. The area was meant for just that.
In another instance, Permit Patty called the police on an 8-year-old selling water bottles because she did not have a permit to sell.
One of the latest incidents in the epidemic is Cornerstore Caroline, who allegedly called the police on a 9-year-old boy.
Cornerstore Caroline, actually named Teresa Klein, claimed she was sexually assaulted by the child while in the store.
“The son grabbed my ass,” Klein said with the phone to her ear.
Later, store cameras determined Klein had fabricated the situation.
Luckily for the young boy, who cried with his younger sister, security cameras and cell phones were present and able to tell the true story.
Without the cameras and the proof that the young black boy was innocent, the case would almost exactly mirror a prominent case from six decades ago.
In 1955, Emmett Till was killed after allegedly whistling at a white women, Carolyn Bryant. Days later, his body was found contorted with a bullet hole through his head. Till was only identifiable because of a ring on his finger.
Six decades later Bryant admitted her claims were false, and Till was brutally murdered unnecessarily.
Till lived in the Jim Crow era. More than half a century later, white tears still flow falsely in an attempt to spite people of color under the guise of retaining order.
According to the Oxford dictionary, an emergency is defined as “A serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.”
If the only emergency is your fear that blackness is inherently dangerous, maybe reconsider your call.