The "Central Park Karen" and the Problem of Viral Racism Videos

A podcast adds new details to the Amy Cooper story. But the bigger problem is the trend of convicting people of racism based on out-of-context clips.

In May 2020, Amy Cooper gained instant infamy as the “Central Park Karen”—the ultimate symbol of toxic whitewomanhood—when a viral video showed her telling a black fellow New Yorker who had asked her to leash her dog that she would call the cops and say that “an African-American man is threatening me.” But is there another side to the story? Recently, t…