The survivor of a racist incident in Central Park, whose viral video of a white woman calling the cops on him has sparked national outrage, is also a pivotal figure in the history of queer representation in comics. A former editor at Marvel Comics, Christian Cooper helped give life to Yoshi Mishima, the first openly homosexual character in the Star Trek universe, PinkNews reports.
Early on the morning of May 25, Cooper went birdwatching in the Ramble, a 36-acre nature reserve in New York’s Central Park. Cooper, a former president of the Harvard Ornithological Club, is an avid and experienced birder; his Facebook profile picture shows him pointing a pair of binoculars toward the trees. In a now-viral Facebook post, Cooper recounts encountering a woman, later identified as Amy Cooper (the two have no familial relation), whom he approached when he noticed her dog “tearing through the plantings in the Ramble.”
“Ma’am, dogs in the Ramble have to be on the leash at all times,” Cooper reports saying. “The sign is right there.” All dogs must be on leashes in the Ramble, according to New York City’s legal code.
He writes that Amy refused, then became flustered when Cooper pulled out his phone and started recording the exchange. In the video posted online Monday, Amy can be seen threatening to call the cops, telling Cooper, who is Black, “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
“Please tell them whatever you like,” Cooper replies as Amy begins to dial.
Amy then calls 911 and breathlessly tells the operator: “There’s a man, African American, he has a bicycle helmet. He is recording me and threatening me and my dog.” Cooper, continuing to record, doesn’t move from the footpath where he’s standing.
“I’m being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately,” Amy adds.
While speaking to the police, Amy puts her dog on the leash, at which point Cooper says, “thank you,” and ends the recording. “Upon arrival, police determined two individuals had engaged in a verbal dispute,” Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell, a spokeswoman for the New York Police Department, told the New York Times. The NYPD did not issue any summons, nor did it make any arrests in connection with the dispute.
A video of the exchange posted to Twitter by Melody Cooper, Christian’s sister, went viral later that day, accruing 27 million views and counting. Once the woman who called the police was identified as Amy Cooper, an investment banker at the investment firm Franklin Templeton, she was promptly placed on administrative leave. The company announced Tuesday that she had been fired. She has also returned her dog, a cocker spaniel named Henry, to the rescue group where she adopted him two years ago.
Further details regarding Christian Cooper have also emerged in the wake of the viral exchange, notably his pioneering role as an editor at Marvel Comics, where he co-created Star Trek’s barrier-breaking character, Yoshi Mishima. According to the LGBTQ+ comic site Gay League, Mishima is portayed as a “smart, brave, caring young man who was a capable leader, a skilled officer, and an effective fighter.” The first openly homosexual character in the Star Trek Comic Universe’s history, Mishima would face significant discrimination throughout his complex narrative arc — one that, for many readers, was prematurely cut short.
