This weekend, the world was introduced to Permit Patty. She became instantly famous after she was filmed allegedly calling the police on an 8-year-old black girl who was selling bottled water without a permit. Permit Patty’s real name is Alison Ettel. She is white. She was, until yesterday, the CEO of Treatwell Health, a company that sells cannabis to canines. And the person who filmed her was the mother of the 8-year-old girl, Jordan Rogers.
When Permit Patty realized that Erin Austin was recording her doing her white racist thing, she ducked behind a wall and immediately entered the eternity of GIFs and memes. Austin posted Permit Patty on Instagram. Millions have seen the video. Images from the incident will be with us until the end of this civilization.
We gotta new meme tho y’all #PermitPatty pic.twitter.com/DW3TFjRzn4
— Racist Raj 🌹 (@_ethiopiangold) June 23, 2018
Today, while walking to work, I came across black youth selling, not lemonade, not bottled water, but, of course, the defining beverage of our city: coffee. They are at the Umoja PEACE Center on 3100 South Alaska Street. This place is near the Columbia Street Station. The youth are doing their normal summer thing, and are excited by any business that comes their way. They have a catchy line for “yo coffee”: “stay woke.” Permit Patty could have used a little of that coffee.
