Karens have been making headlines lately for their rude, racist, and entitled behavior. Some have even been caught on video and now face public humiliation due to it.
Amy Cooper, a white woman who called the police on a Black man birdwatching in Central Park, gained national notoriety as “Central Park Karen.”
Media Coverage of Rude Karens
The media is saturated with videos of vicious Karens targeting innocent Black people for being Black. These videos can garner tens of millions of views and be both mesmerizing and chilling; however, they also carry serious repercussions.
One recent video depicted a woman, unidentified Karen, harassing a Black man at a football game. The clip showed Karen screaming at the man for hours due to his race.
This incident is the latest in a long string of assaults and threats against Black people based on race. These acts, often taking place in public places, have made headlines around the world and even drawn legal scrutiny.
While some of these incidents are violent, others are less threatening yet still have grave repercussions for victims. For instance, video footage showing Karen screaming at a Black man during a football game has gained notoriety for its inexcusable display of racism.
Another infamous incident involved a California woman falsely accusing a 14-year-old of taking her phone. This video was captured and she was taken to court – the case has since been dropped, but the video serves as an unfortunate reminder that white women can act out their moral authority over people of color with ease.
It’s easy to see how this kind of behavior mirrors the racist and misogynistic attitudes that have plagued our country for centuries. Indeed, it was this type of racism which gave rise to the term “Karen,” referring to a woman who amplifies her privilege by oppressing others.
Some of these Karens have been filmed in public places such as Red Lobster or Trader Joe’s, but others have gone on a rampage within their own homes. These individuals have been known to throw temper tantrums, shout at strangers and call the police over seemingly insignificant issues.
In America, the Karen movement has made a comeback, coinciding with the pandemic that has left many communities fearful for their health and safety. It appears that Karens are making a comeback, their irrational behavior and discriminatory tactics taking hold again amid this crisis.
Media Coverage of Entitled Karens
Karen has been used to refer to a range of people, from anti-vaccination protesters to racially charged individuals. But over the last year or so, an unusual middle aged white woman has gained widespread media coverage and admiration for her actions.
Many entitled Karens act with an arrogant sense of entitlement, believing they possess power over those around them in retail or service industries, or are deserving of preferential treatment at restaurants and grocery stores.
On May 25, 2020, video emerged of a heated Central Park standoff between an unidentified black man and “Karen,” on the same day police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis (see Nir, 2020). This incident garnered widespread public attention and extensive press coverage.
Since then, the “Karen” name has become almost a byword for an upper middle-aged white woman who displays behaviors indicative of privilege. Such as demanding to speak to the manager in order to belittle service industry workers, being anti-vaccination and engaging in racist microaggressions like asking to touch black people’s hair.
Accordingly, the Karen phenomenon has spread beyond just the anti-vaxxer movement and now encompasses an array of troubling behaviors that were once only associated with that group. These actions are now being reported in the mainstream media and contributing to racial tensions affecting America as a whole.
Many social commentators have highlighted the Karen phenomenon as evidence that white women are taking over an area traditionally occupied by Black people, however a few voices have challenged these assertions and demonstrated that this is simply not true. One recent example was Hadley Freeman’s column in The Guardian where she wrote that Karen was an “ageist, classist term” similar to how “Sharon” and “Tracy” used to refer to younger working-class women in Britain back then.
Media Coverage of Innocent People Targeted by Karens
Recently, many have pointed to media coverage of innocent people being victimized by entitled Karens as evidence of racism and police brutality. In particular, media outlets have highlighted instances of racist Karens targeting Black people for minor infractions like wearing masks or eating in public spaces as examples of their prejudice.
Some of these incidents have been recorded on video, which has gone viral and caused outrage online. One woman was seen spitting on a Black teenager in the street before being arrested for assault; another allegedly spilt her urine onto another Black person before going into “Karen” mode and being accused of attacking a police officer after being released from custody.
Sarah Williams, a scholar of social justice, notes that Karens have long been used by white women to express their role within society. However, she points out that Karens aren’t new – they have been around for some time in various forms such as “BBQ Becky,” “Permit Patty,” and “Pool Patrol Paula.”
Last summer, the “Karen” trend reached new heights when videos of Amy Cooper racially profiling a Black birdwatcher in Central Park went viral. This incident inspired people to link the racism of “Karens” with police killing 46-year-old George Floyd of Minneapolis that same day.
Other Karens have been caught on video shouting and making racial threats at Black people trying to follow park regulations, such as keeping dogs leashed. One such woman became known as the “Convenience Store Karen” or the “Sacramento Karen,” after she dared a Black woman to call her the n-word in a convenience store.
Media attention has often focused on this type of Karen, but other entitled Karens have also been captured on video. A woman whose identity was not disclosed was filmed inside Trader Joe’s wearing a mask and screaming at employees.
In addition to her threat to employees, this woman demonstrated her unwillingness to alter her behavior despite public condemnation or reprimands. It appears this behavior stems from an entitlement mentality which can lead to aggressive or rude behaviors.
Media Coverage of Innocent People Targeted by Entitled Karens
At a time of pandemic stress and public reckoning with racial social justice issues, entitled Karens — white women who complain about everything from their health to service industry work practices — have emerged. These rage-driven complainers also reflect the precarious position many middle class Americans have been placed in over recent decades – seeing their wealth and security diminish dramatically.
In May 2020, an incident involving Amy Cooper and her dog in Central Park garnered widespread media coverage and widespread condemnation. She called police on Christian Cooper, a Black birder who asked her to leash the pup while exploring Ramble area of the park.
This standoff, captured and widely shared on social media as the ‘Central Park Karen’ incident, occurred the day after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis and served as a stark reminder that American policing has not changed since Floyd’s passing.
After this incident, the media began linking the racism of entitled Karens such as Amy Cooper to systemic racism and police brutality. This was because their conduct resembled that of Carolyn Bryant when she complained about a 14-year-old named Emmett Till being murdered by white adults in 1892.
Similarly, the refusal to wear face coverings in response to the coronavirus has become a racially charged and increasingly politicized issue, with people sharing disinformation and conspiracy theories about it online as if they were ‘Karens’.
These ‘pandemic shaming’ behaviors — refusing to wear protective masks or otherwise acknowledging the risks associated with the virus — have been used as a platform to critique essential service workers for their selfishness and vulnerability in front of others. These actions also constitute white privilege, as they deny essential work to those on the front lines of combatting the virus.
These actions of ‘pandemic shaming’ reverberate throughout society, fueling white anger about racism and class privilege during a time of unprecedented social transformation. Yet these incidents are not solely the fault of race; rather they are products of new precarities which have degraded middle class individuals and left them vulnerable to sexual violence.
