Democracy Dies in Darkness
PostEverything

Amy Cooper is the kind of white woman black families warn their children about

Amy Cooper said the quiet part out loud when she called the police on Christian Cooper

Perspective by
Michael Harriot is an award-winning journalist for TheRoot.com, where he covers the intersection of race, politics and culture. His book, "Black AF History," is scheduled to be published later this year.
May 29, 2020 at 9:57 a.m. EDT
A video still shows Amy Cooper with her dog at Central Park in New York as she calls the police. (Christian Cooper/AP)

When I was 11 years old, I forgot how to whistle.

Before then, I could perfectly wheeze out “The Andy Griffith Show” theme song without taking a breath. My cool older cousins from “up north” even gave me a summer-long tutorial on how to perform the two-fingers-in-mouth whistle used to hail a New York City taxicab. But I had no idea what they meant when they warned me not to do that whistle around white women lest I wanted to be “Emmett Till’ed.”