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The story has become well known. In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till travelled from his home in relatively progressive Chicago to Jim Crow Mississippi to visit his extended family. Emmett was somewhat of a joker and whilst there he entertained his friends by telling them he had a white girlfriend back home in Chicago. To test him, his friends dared him to speak to a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, who was manning a nearby store. None of us can know for sure what happened between the two, records range from him whistling at her to him calling “Bye, baby” as he left. What is known is that on 28th August 1955, Emmett Till was abducted by Bryant’s husband and his half-brother, mutilated beyond recognition and murdered. A life, a child’s life was taken to protect and uphold the ego of a white woman. Sound familiar?

The Amy Cooper case has cycled through our social media feeds recently. The video of her calling the police on Christian Cooper (not related), an African American who asked her to put her dog on a leash in accordance with park rules, would be funny if it was not so eerily reminiscent of a historical trend. Her dog, which can be seen in the video writhing in her hands like something possessed, would definitely agree with me. Why did Amy Cooper say, with a smug tone and a self-assured flick of the head, “I’m gonna tell them [the police] there’s an African American man threatening my life”? The statement was a lie, including the man’s race did not make it any less of one. She knew however, that this racial reference would have power with the police. She had been socialised to expect to have her way, to dominate in a dispute against a black man. Her nation, and to some extent the world, had established the black man as a perpetual threat to and assailant of the white woman and it had become the role of the state to protect the illusionary white victim at all costs.

From ‘Othello’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ to ‘The Birth of a Nation’ and ‘Get Out’, literary and cinematic culture has not shied away from the tensions between black men and white women. The interaction in ‘Of Mice and Men’ between Curley’s wife, a white lady married to the boss’s son, and Crooks, the negro labourer, still terrifies me four years on from GCSE English. Curley’s wife tells Crooks, “I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny”. The Amy Cooper case ain’t even funny either. The power dynamic between black men and white women that we see in literature and film is not a fiction-it reflects history and present-day society. The cases of the Scottsboro Boys, which reportedly inspired aspects of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, George Stinney, the Central Park 5 and Darryl Hunt are just a few examples. The recent incident involving ‘BBQ Becky’ is also strikingly similar to Amy Cooper’s.

It may seem like the cases of Emmett Till and Christian Cooper are more different than they are similar: Mr. Cooper was not killed, he was not even arrested. Amy Cooper complained to the state, not to vigilantes. However, when we consider the speedy acquittal of Till’s murderers and the fact that they remained legally innocent despite publicly confessing to their crimes, we realise that the police and judicial system of the time endorsed the actions of the killers. As Roy Wilkins, head of the NAACP, stated matter-of-factly, “the state of Mississippi has decided to maintain white supremacy by murdering children” [emphasis mine]. Thus we see in both cases a state that is known by its civilians to be unjust and violent against black males in particular. This knowledge allows white civilians to use the injustice and violence to their advantage. Amy Cooper knew very well that the police could come down there and shoot Christian Cooper where he stood. It has happened too many times before. Carolyn Brant confessed in 2007 that she had lied on the stand about what went down between herself and Emmett Till, that he did not harass her as she said he did. Amy Cooper lied to all our faces. Never underestimate the power of a white woman’s lie in a racist society.