BBQ Becky

2018

Date: 29 April 2018 · Place: Lake Merritt, Oakland, California · Figures: Jennifer Schulte, white woman who called 911 · Onsayo Abram and family, Black picnickers · Michelle Snider, bystander who filmed · Tags: Karen Subspecies, 911, Viral Video 01. Charcoal Grill On 29 April 2018 Jennifer Schulte calls the Oakland Police Department twice to report a Black family using a charcoal grill at Lake Merritt, a section of the park where only non-charcoal grills are permitted. She stays at the scene for over two hours waiting for officers. Bystander Michelle Snider films twenty-five minutes of the encounter. The footage shows Schulte crying, calling police, refusing to leave, then claiming she is being harassed. 02. Subspecies Canon The clip uploads to YouTube on 9 May and crosses one million views in a week. Black Twitter names her BBQ Becky. The naming convention spreads through the summer: Permit Patty over a girl selling water in San Francisco on 22 June, Coupon Carl over a coupon dispute in Chicago on 1 July, Pool Patrol Paula in South Carolina on 24 June. Each name follows the same alliterative pattern, each video the same arc of a white adult calling police on Black people doing nothing. Lake Merritt holds an annual BBQin' While Black cookout starting in 2018. Schulte never gives an interview. Sources • Lisa Fernandez, '911 call about black men barbecuing resolved with peace, love and cookout in Oakland,' KTVU, 21 May 2018 • P.R. Lockhart, 'Living while black and the criminalization of blackness,' Vox, 1 August 2018 • Know Your Meme, 'BBQ Becky'