By Elaine Carlson
Yesterday when I was checking the news, I saw this headline --- “Keyon Harrold Writing A Song About His Son Being Falsely Accused of Stealing a Phone by ‘Soho Karen.’” (“Bet” January 21, 2021)
Before I saw that headline I thought it was fortunate Harrold acted quickly and filmed the actions of Soho Karen (Miya Ponsetto). The video did not just show her accusing his son of stealing her phone but also showed her viciously attacking them at the Arlo Hotel where they were staying in New York.
Now I am in awe of him for using the incident as inspiration for his art.
On Twitter the family’s attorney Ben Crumps said, “After Miya Ponsetto’s racist attack on his son, [Mr. Harrold] wrote this song to remind us of the America we face today. We have faced many injustices but continue to persevere --- by turning our stories into art, we add those lessons into our collective memory. We will NOT forget!”
The Arlo staff said they called the police when they learned about Ponsetto’s accusation. The first job of the responding cops should have been to determine if the phone being held by the 14-year-old boy was in fact her phone. But by the time they got there she had left.
If Ponsetto had stayed the cops could have lent her a phone and asked her to call herself. Then when the phone would not ring, they would have had ample reason to doubt her claim that the phone was hers. If the cops wanted to go further, they could have asked Harrold to phone his son. Then when ….
In five days, the police released Arlo’s surveillance. It had the same scenes but more footage with scenes not caught on the other video. It is difficult for me to resist doing a “what if.” Would the hotel have shared their surveillance with the police if Harrold hadn’t first filmed and posted his video?
Recently bystanders have taken films to document the bad actions of police officers. Because of those films people of all races know that illegal police actions against Blacks is sometimes a reality. And I think everyone is becoming more aware of the racism that has survived the Civil Rights Movement.
Now I think it is great such technology can record the unlawful actions of non-police officers (“regular people”).
And let’s think back to our country’s experience with that Civil Rights Movement.
In 1963 Bull Connor ordered the police to attack protesters. People all over America watched on television “… as police in Birmingham, Ala., aimed high-powered hoses and sicced snarling dogs on black men, women and even children who wanted just one thing --- to be treated the same as white Americans.” (Corky Siemazko, Birmingham Erupted Into Chaos, May 3, 2013 “NY Daily News”)
The violence had the opposite effect from what Connor and other southern leaders expected. It led to much bigger White support of Black efforts. President John Kennedy said, “The civil rights movement should thank God for Bull Connor.”
Kennedy was only partially right. Movements need enemies but Blacks then and now do not have any shortages of enemies. Back then Connor was just one of many people who were not decent to Blacks.
I want to do another “what if.” What would have happened if cell phones with cameras had been invented and had been common during the Civil Rights Movement?
I think we can guess (or hope) that many problems society now has would have been tackled then and might have been solved by now. Perhaps Blacks would be safer when out and wouldn’t have to be worried about police brutality.
We live in a good era where we have the technology that can be used in the fight for a better world. We can certainly now continue the fight that the Civil Rights started.