Christian Cooper stood in Central Park, New York, birdwatching when he encountered a white woman with an unleashed dog and asked her to leash her dog in the designated area. The ensuing verbal confrontation would go viral and garner over 40 million views on X, formerly known as Twitter, alone.
Cooper, whose memoir Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man In the Natural World became a New York Times Best Seller, took to the podium in Paresky Commons on February 9. Delivering a presentation entitled “The Incident — Activism in the Face of Crisis: How to Respond When History Knocks at Your Door,” Cooper discussed how race and gender play into society today in escalating incidents, as well as how to respond to such occurrences.
During the 2020 Central Park birdwatching incident, Cooper’s request for the woman to leash her dog in the designated area resulted in the woman calling the police and falsely claiming that an African American man was threatening her life. Cooper recounted his experience being on the receiving end of an event that thrust the discussion of race into the limelight.
“What made it more than just another argument between a dog walker and a birdwatcher…is how she made it about race. She tried to weaponize race to get her way. If she had a gun and shot me dead, who would contradict her saying that it was all in self-defense?” said Cooper.
Cooper shared five pieces of advice to attendees regarding confrontations and incidents based on race, gender, and personal identities. He described how recording, staying calm, being prepared, and, above all, surviving is integral during and after an incident.
“Your first duty is to survive. You do not need to be the next teenager who was killed unjustly. Whatever the situation is, your focus should be to keep yourself safe. My next advice is to record, record, record. My incident got the recognition [it did] because there is a video that captured the incident. Derek Chauvin is now dressed in prison orange because a teenager named Darnella Frazier had the presence of mind to record the murder of George Floyd. Thanks to technology, we are all carrying powerful video cameras in our pockets all the time. If we see injustice of any kind going down, capture it. My third piece of advice is to stay calm. Especially with the point of recording, you don’t want to be the person on video going wild. That makes it way too easy to paint you as a loose cannon and toss you aside,” said Cooper.
Cooper continued, “The fourth piece of advice is to come prepared for the knife fight. Metaphorically. What I mean is to be prepared for anything that could come your way. For example, know your rights. This is particularly important in situations where the police are involved. Know what to do and know what not to do if you see an unjust situation. Without putting yourself in danger, you can create a space where the targeted person can get the heck out. Finally, my last piece of advice is to not let the incident define you. Even if you made a blunder, don’t spend the rest of your life thinking this thing happened to me, it’s my entire life. Take the lesson, and don’t get stuck.”
Christina Donovan ’24 reflected on their initial excitement for Cooper’s talk and his work as an author and activist. They also described how Cooper empowered student attendees by emphasizing the power of technology in young people’s lives.
“I was very excited because I talked a little bit [with] Mr. Cooper at lunch. So I was looking forward to [his talk] a lot. I was excited by the advice he was giving, and I appreciated that he addressed it to us young people. I felt empowered. He was very passionate… I appreciated that he said that we should record. I think a lot of times, people our age [are considered stupid] because [we are on our phones a lot] but it’s nice to know that [phones] can be powerful and technology can be useful and save people,” said Donovan.
As part of his presentation, Cooper spoke on the struggle of being vulnerable and speaking out when dealing with issues that affect people. Jorge Briones-Sausa ’25 highlighted how he found Cooper’s openness and empathy in answering questions reassuring and supportive.
“He has a good infectious personality like you want to keep talking to him and he was very open. It was very important for me as a queer person of color, especially during black arts weekend, and because we are co-presidents of [Andover’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance]. I enjoyed…how Christian Cooper answered questions about what we can do when we are in such vulnerable positions as students, saying that we have the right to be upset and we have to exist and feel human, [as] it can be really difficult for us to admit our stances in our positions that affect people like climate change, social justice, and human rights” said Briones-Sausa.
