White is Might???? :((( (Cleo Naur!!)

 In Whiteness as Property by Cheryl Harris, Harris illustrates how the concept of race, specifically whiteness, permeates throughout society, and how the legal system has often protected whiteness as a property interest, resulting in the material conditions that exist for people of color (especially Black people) today. Harris provides a compelling explanation as to how racism can be baked into the basic foundational principles of society (in this case conceptions of property), thus allowing for systemic racism to flourish without individuals needing to actually be racist. Even if individuals do not intend to be racist, due to the systems in place, they can inadvertently reinforce the racist material conditions and dynamics at hand.

I believe an interesting implication of Harris’ analysis of whiteness is that whiteness, while it most certainly functions as a form of property in many regards, also functions as an entitlement. Entitlement is defined as “any government-provided or government-managed benefit or service to which some or all individuals are entitled by law.” It seems like whiteness can also very much fall into this category. I believe this is illustrated by the example of Amy Cooper, also known as the Central Park Karen. In the now-viral video, Amy Cooper disparages Christian Cooper for telling her to leash her dog. Her tone is angry and uncowed. She threatens to call the police on Christian Cooper, who encourages her to do it, knowing that he has video evidence to exonerate himself. As Amy Cooper calls the police, her tone changes to one that is frightened and meek. She is heard emphasizing the fact that there is a Black man threatening her. In the video of Amy Cooper, you notice how she goes from being very angry and unyielding to being very timid and meek when speaking to the cop. She relies on the conception of the delicate white woman and relies on her whiteness to make the state reinforce her ability to berate Christian Cooper i.e she called on the government to provide the benefits that came with her whiteness (in this case policy protection). Cooper assumed that by virtue of her whiteness she would be believed when she said that Christian Walker was harassing her, and Christian Walker, on the account of being a Black man, believed that he would not be believed if he tried to deny her claims hence why he took care to video the interaction. When the police came and did not immediately take Amy Cooper’s word on the accusations she made, she was visibly shocked, unable to comprehend why her entitlement was not being fulfilled. This, I believe, is one of many examples of whiteness functioning as an entitlement as well as a property.