BBQ Becky, Permit Patty, Pool Patrol Paula, Apartment Patty and now, Corner-store Caroline. All these funny nicknames show a growing case of concerned white ladies, months apart, that have been calling the police on innocent black people. The only difference between these false reports is that Corner-store Caroline accused a nine-year-old black child of sexual assault, claiming that the child groped her while she was shopping in Brooklyn. Well, apparently the store had a video surveillance showing that the boy’s book bag accidentally brushed against her, not the child himself.
We’ve seen this story before, in the sad and tragic case of Emmett Till who was accused of ‘whistling’ at a white lady, Carolyn Bryant, at a grocery store. This was false of course, but this happened in 1955 Jim Crow Southern Mississippi and as a result, Bryant’s husband and half-brother kidnapped Till, brutally beat him, shot him point blank in the head, tied his body with barbed wire, and dragged his body into the nearby river. They were both tried at court for murder, but of course, found not guilty. A child died all because of a white lie. While I personally couldn’t care less about the severity of the nicknames given as long as the story is being put out there, there was backlash for the ‘cute nicknames.’
“At first, the seemingly weekly moments and memes doubled as mindless comedy combined with ways to shame the white women for their racism,” he argued. “But it’s time to stop it. Because, in the end, these nicknames and memes are only shielding white women from real consequences they should get for putting Black lives in danger.” – (Washington Post)
Racism is still prevalent in America, and these instances of police callings on black people are very real examples of it. The truth of it is that white people, in general, need to educate themselves, and anyone who calls the police for something minimal, at most deserves to be fined. These little lies can get someone into very real trouble someday.