White Woman Calls Police On Black Woman Canvassing For Democratic Congressional Candidate

Continuing with the trend that Black people can’t do anything without being targeted, a white woman in Pennsylvania decided to call the police on a Black woman canvassing for a Democratic congressional candidate. Yup, it’s a situation that the woman, Amanda Kemp, a racial justice and mindfulness mentor has dubbed #canvassingwhileBlack herself. According to WITF, Kemp, and her husband, who is white, were given entry to Bent Creek gated community after giving the name of a voter they wanted to visit while canvassing for Jess King. However, when they started knocking on other doors, Elizabeth Johnson, a Bent Creek Resident and a member of the Republican Committee of Lancaster County took issue, declaring the community private property and even going as far as to call the police on the couple. The couple did leave the community, by the way, but after they got home, an officer showed up and spoke to Kemp’s husband.

“The unequal power we had in that situation was very apparent to me,” Kemp said according to WITF. “Canvassing while black refers to all that anxiety I bring to an interaction, combined with having to face people’s expressed hostility and outright rage, and her saying, ‘You don’t belong here.'”

According to Kemp, the woman aggressively approached them saying, “What are you doing here? You can’t do that here.” When Kemp explained that she was canvassing for King, the woman reportedly retorted “I hate Jess King. She’s trying to take us to socialism. You can’t do that here.” Johnson has been campaigning on behalf of King’s opponent, Republican incumbent  Lloyd Smucker. Johnson’s attorney, Edwin Pfursich, said that the situation was taken out of context.

“This matter is about trespassing. The volunteers from Jess King’s campaign entered private property and became aggressive,” he told WITF . “They were asked to leave and refused, so the police were notified.”