‘Citi Bike Karen’ Reminds Us That Carolyn Bryant Donham’s Sordid Legacy Lives On

Source: Tim Clayton – Corbis / Getty
 
Karen attacks have been proven to come in many shapes and forms — Parking Lot Karen, TikTok Karen, the now-infamous Central Park Karen and even a Disney-inspired Tigger Karen are just a few to scratch the surface of white women in fake distress. However, the latest example that recently occurred in New York City reminded us of the biggest Karen to ever exist: Carolyn Bryant Donham.
It’s only been a few weeks since the notorious Emmett Till accuser died last month at the age of 88, peacefully in hospice care somewhere in Westlake, Louisiana. Six decades prior, she infamously reported an unwarranted cry for help that led to the gruesomely inhumane murder of the aforementioned 14-year-old Black teenager.
In 2023, we sadly still see the same racist-driven trope being used by a modern day Carolyn Bryant Donham; this one’s name is Sarah Jane Comrie.
 
RELATED: Carolyn Bryant Donham, Emmett Till’s Accuser Who Sparked Lynching, Dies At 88
From unenthusiastic screams for “Help!” to elevating the fantasy by shouting “Please get off of me!” even though not one person put a hand on her, Comrie did exactly what famed attorney Ben Crump describes in his tweet seen above by weaponizing her tears (or lack thereof!) in an attempt to wrongfully criminalize a group of young Black men. It’s the same frame of mind that Donham had decades prior during a time when the odds were way more in the favor of racist white women.
 
 
Even though we live in a time where thankfully the young men were able to flip the script on Comrie using the power of social media, the viral clip itself is a bit disheartening when you see a handful of white men swooping in to “save” her — one even suggests the main victim of her accusations reset a bike that he already paid for. Wait…what?!
Although Carolyn Bryant Donham is literally a thing of the past, and Sarah Jane Comrie’s future as a physician’s assistant at Bellevue Hospital in NYC is looking rather bleak, the same can be said about our future as a society if people like them continue to use the preset prejudices of America to their favor. From the Tulsa Race Massacre and the Groveland Four to the recent exoneration of Gregory Counts and Van Dyke Perry, our people have always deserved so much better.
 
 
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