Karen is often used as a shorthand for any white woman who believes they have the right to demand their way, whether that means charcoal grilling in Central Park or policing nonwhite people.
Recently, there have been many Karen incidents documented on video. In some cases, these videos demonstrate racism and even physical harm towards Karen people.
Historical Patterns in Arrests of Racist and Entitled Karens
The United States boasts the largest criminal justice system in the world, with millions of people incarcerated at rates far higher than any other nation. It’s deeply racialized too – African Americans, Latinos and all non-White populations experience incarceration rates far greater than their White peers.
Prison and jail incarceration of people of color in the United States remains a pressing and divisive racial issue for activists and the general public alike. Beyond prisons and jails, there is an alarmingly high number of people held in other forms of detention such as probation or parole, due to decades-long patterns of discrimination within our criminal legal system that was previously unheard-of.
Lawsuits aside, this issue also speaks to the American nation’s long history of white supremacy violence. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a surge in race-related lynchings and murders due to an anti-Black punitive tradition that had become entrenched within American society.
Many times, people accused of crimes are actually innocent. They may have been arrested for something as minor as a prank call or fake theft, but in other instances their arrest was for more serious offenses.
These arrests, and the subsequent legal proceedings, demonstrate an unwillingness to hold people accountable for their actions. In some instances, police officers weren’t even present when crimes took place.
On May 25th, 2020 in Central Park, New York, a woman named Amy Cooper (no relation to Christian Cooper) refused to leash her dog as required by park regulations. Instead of calling the police, she made a dramatic claim that an ‘African-American man’ was threatening her life.
This incident was widely covered in the press, underscoring its significance not just as an isolated incident in Central Park but as part of a larger discourse around racism and police brutality. On the same day that George Floyd died from police brutality in Minneapolis, another black man named George Floyd also perished – underscoring how far-reaching this episode could reach within society and its context of racial inequity and racism.
These incidents demonstrate how the “Karen” stereotype has evolved over time to encompass a range of behaviors. Karens have been accused of racial profiling, harassing and intimidating service industry workers and police officers; they use racist social media disinformation and conspiracy theories; they’ve even been labeled as ‘Coronavirus Karens’ who refuse face coverings in public places or adhere to quarantine restrictions.
