Amanda Knox is living well and relishing every moment of her freedom, even an entire decade after she was acquitted in the murder of Meredith Kercher. She spends a lot of time online, interacting with her numerous "fans," and appears to be taking a great deal of enjoyment from her highly publicized persona as a "wrongfully accused" person. However, something else is lingering over the Amanda Knox saga that is still in dire need of attention -- and that is the matter of Patrick Lumumba.
A black man wrongfully accused
Patrick Lumumba was a bar owner in Perugia at the time of Meredith Kercher's death and was briefly acquainted with Amanda Knox as her part-time boss.
When Amanda was pulled in for questioning regarding her flatmate's grisly death, the first thing she did was point her finger at Patrick, going so far as to place him directly at the scene of the murder (their flat). Patrick Lumumba is an innocent man who had never been to Meredith Kercher's home and had no reason to even be at the scene of the murder for any reason. It has long been suspected that Amanda Knox falsely accused Lumumba in order to keep attention away from Rudy Guede, who was ultimately arrested as an accomplice of Amanda and her former lover Raffaele Sollecito.
There was absolutely no evidence or probable cause on which to arrest Patrick Lumumba, but because he was a black man and a Congolese immigrant, the police in Italy relied solely on the tearful accusation of Amanda Knox -- a white woman.
Lumumba was arrested and spent two weeks in jail while his business suffered and his reputation crumbled due to the false accusations delivered by Amanda. During the two weeks that Patrick spent in jail, Amanda had multiple opportunities to tell authorities the truth, but instead, she chose self-preservation over honesty. This is a common theme in historical cases of white women falsely accusing black men of violent crimes, but that self-preserving dishonesty only bought Amanda two weeks of time.
Lumumba was eventually released and declared completely innocent of any wrongdoing -- but at a tragic cost. He was forced to close his business and has had to make several unnecessary changes in his life as a direct result of Amanda's lie.
A decade later and no apologies
Amanda Knox has not apologized publicly for falsely accusing a black man of this horrifically violent crime.
She has never held herself accountable for the damage it caused to Lumumba's life, his wife's life, and their children's' lives. She has never publicly made any amends with Patrick for the harm she did indeed cause. Patrick Lumumba has declared publicly on multiple occasions that Amanda Knox ruined his life, and that her status as a rich, white American woman is what granted her the ability to have him thrown in jail and have such damaging long-term control over his life.
Furthermore, Amanda has never addressed the black community and apologized for taking direct advantage of a racist system. She has continued to draw in more and more popularity and has become quite an influencer on social media and in the public eye -- and yet this white woman has never spoken about her damaging behavior toward people of color.
What Amanda Knox did by falsely accusing Patrick Lumumba is something that racist white women have done for ages. Black men have been murdered for the lies of white women in the past. Even the woman who falsely accused Emmett Till has come out and apologized to his family. Why can't Amanda Knox do the same?
This still happens to innocent black men every day
When Amanda Knox falsely accused Patrick Lumumba of killing Meredith Kercher in 2007, she was participating in a problematic behavior that continues to plague our society. When a white woman wrongfully accuses an innocent person of color of a crime, they are acting on a historically racist type of power-play. Black men and children have lost their lives over this behavior, and they continue to be put in danger through the selfish, entitled, and actually-violent mentalities of people who are not in danger of being killed by police.
A recent case that highlights this type of racism is the viral story of Amy Cooper, who called the police on a man who asked her to leash her dog while they were both at the same park. Cooper became so angry that a black man asked her to follow an actual rule in the park, that she pulled out her cellphone and called 911 on him two times, telling police that Christian Cooper (no relation) had assaulted her. Of course, Christian Cooper never assaulted this woman, and he was fortunate enough to have his cellphone out at the time of some of her antics.
Another impactful case showing what happens when a white woman wrongfully accuses a person of color of a crime: A man named Ronnie Long was released from prison last year after he spent more than four decades incarcerated for a rape he did not commit.
A white woman falsely identified him in a line-up, and that was all authorities and prosecutors needed to throw him in prison. Fortunately, he has been released and exonerated for the crime he did not commit, but that does not change that he was a victim of a system that is continually exploited by people with racism in their hearts.
