We Need to Talk About Karens: America Loves to Hate #KarensGoneWild
Only one Karen can rule them all.
This weekend, #KarensGoneWild trended, and our feeds were filled with graphic videos of white women being horrifyingly racist.
Many of these videos are disturbing, but they're also important opportunities for white America to confront the everyday racism that too often gets pushed under the rug, hidden away by white femininity and its presumption of innocence.
UPDATE: The latest Karen to flood our feeds is from a California Trader Joe's, where she was "harassed" for not wearing a mask on the first day of the store's re-opening.
Why did this Karen go viral? The sheer amount of anger behind her outburst (throwing down her shopping basket and yelling, "You're f*cking Democrat pigs, all of you!) is a spectacle to watch. She added, "I having a breathing problem" and said that her doctor would not let her wear a mask. While she screamed at the fellow shoppers that they were "violating federal law," the store's employees softly implored, "Ma-am, please..." in the background.
Interestingly, one reply featured a nurse debunking the myth that wearing a mask impedes one's ability to breathe by restricting oxygen flow or causing carbon dioxide to build up around the face. Thanks, nurse Jay!
Another video became popular recently simply because of how scary the Karen in question is.
In the #KarensGoneWild video, a white woman named Lisa Alexander confronted a man for writing the "Black Lives Matter" slogan on his own property. Alexander, the CEO of a company called LaFace Skincare, appeared out of nowhere on a suburban street in San Francisco and began harassing a Filipino man she saw on the street named Jaime Juanillo. Her faux-politeness is eerie, as is her spooky smile, which—inevitably—dissolved into an immediate willingness to call the police on her neighbor.
Alexander apologized for her mistakes in a statement: "I want to apologize directly to Mr. Juanillo," she wrote. "There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision to question him about what he was doing in front of his home," she wrote. "I should have minded my own business. The last 48 hours has taught me that my actions were those of someone who is not aware of the damage caused by being ignorant and naive to racial inequalities.
"When I watch the video I am shocked and sad that I behaved the way I did," she continued. "It was disrespectful to Mr. Juanillo and I am deeply sorry for that. I did not realize at the time that my actions were racist and have learned a painful lesson. I am taking a hard look at the meaning behind white privilege and am committed to growing from this experience."
Alexander's video received so much heat that Birchbox, a former partner of hers, officially ended their relationship.
Alexander has shut down her social media accounts, aware of the storm incoming. Still, her expression will haunt all of our nightmares.
The fact that Alexander is a CEO of a beauty company seems to be appropriate. The beauty industry's white feminism only replicates power structures that too often throw people of color under the rug–and they're always dangerous.
The Karen meme rose in popularity during coronavirus, but it's been around for a while. Last year, New York Times writer Sarah Miller called Karens "the policewomen of all human behavior"—and if cops are being called out, why not call out the Karens that uphold cop-like power structures that endanger people for simply walking around or doing daily activities as well?
Overall, the "Karen" trend is funny—but has horrifying implications. Many of the Karen videos reveal that white women (and white people in general) are all too willing to call the police knowing full well the harm it might cause. If they didn't know before, then the George Floyd protests have made the realization inevitable: The police are dangerous for many people of color, specifically Black people. A Karen's cop call on an innocent person because of a mild inconvenience could result in someone being incarcerated or killed.
For far too long, white women have been complicit in the oppression and criminalization of Black men and men of color. These kinds of interactions are knit into the fabric of white supremacy; but fortunately, there are thousands of anti-racist resources online that can help anyone, Karen or not. Also fortunate is the fact that everyone has a camera these days. We're watching you, Karen.
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