beyond the jokes, dr. jennifer schulte shows how “well-meaning” white people can be deadly for black people

The woman who called the police on a group of Black people for barbecuing at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California, reportedly is a ‘Senior Project Manager Air Quality’ with a PhD from Stanford University, identified as Dr. Jennifer Schulte.

People are making fun of her on social media because sometimes, one needs comic relief in tragic situations. But the incident, seen by many as another example of the effects of gentrification in Lake Merritt, is just one example among many.

Beyond the “Cookout Beckie” aka “BBQBeckie” memes and jokes, the reason why this story resonates so much in the Black community is that there is a pattern of people, white people, calling the police on Black people, which often ends up being scary at the very least, or deadly. Even cops have complained that white people waste their time with irrational fear of Black people, imagine that!

Although we don’t know about her politics at this time, Dr. Jennifer Schulte, as a ‘Senior Project Manager Air Quality’ works in the field of environment. Her biography states that she’s an “air quality and climate change specialist, and is a recognized expert in the fields of air quality, emission estimation, air dispersion modeling, health risk assessments, and climate change impacts”.

In other words: your typical “well-meaning”, “nice” white person (#sarcasm). Who also happens to want to call the police on Black people enjoying life, and finding “good reasons” to do it, as shown in the video above.

Just like the Starbucks employees who called the police on Black people thought they had good reasons to do it. Same thing for the people who called the police at Waffle House. Same thing for the Yale student who called the cops because a Black student was taking a nap in the common area of the dorm. Same thing for the person who called the cops on Stephon Clark, resulting in his death. And countless others.
“BBQBeckie” could have been deadly for the Black people involved.

So this isn’t just about “Cookout Beckie”. This is a pattern. And this isn’t about conservatives vs. liberals either. As we’ve often reported (and so did Martin Luther King Jr. before us), white liberals are just as problematic as conservatives.

“Well-meaning” white people need to get real about their racism, anti-blackness, conscious and subconscious bias, and STOP calling the cops for nothing on Black people.

– Words by Nounouche