Recent viral videos featuring white women commonly referred to as “Karens,” who wear mullet-combovers, order ketchup with relish, and demand attention in public, have taken the internet by storm.
These videos don’t just highlight racism and power dynamics in the abstract. Often, they reveal a more nuanced form of white supremacy that permeates neighborhoods and workplaces across America.
The Typical Race of Rude and Entitled Karens
On the internet, there is an increasingly rude and entitled subculture known as Karens. These women tend to be middle-to-upper middle class with money who expect special treatment.
These individuals are so self-important that they believe they deserve to be treated like royalty and show little consideration for others. They may hold narrow-minded views, bully retail or restaurant employees or throw public tantrums over minor inconveniences.
Karens come in all genders and races, but the stereotypical Karen is a middle-aged white woman who acts rude and entitled. She may believe that she deserves special treatment while others dislike her because of her wealth.
Some experts consider Karen to be a derogatory term for women who expect to be pampered and who act with little respect for others. These individuals believe they are privileged, believing their actions will grant them more power and control over the world around them.
An entitlement mindset and lawnmower parenting often lead to a culture of lawnmower parenting and the belief that their children deserve special access to everything. This could include preferential placement in schools or programs they believe will be the best or easiest for their child, even if it’s not possible to meet all their requirements.
Parents often utilize their political power to exert pressure on teachers and schools. Parents may demand advanced courses or AP classes for their children even though test scores and teacher recommendations might not support it. Furthermore, they have the power to secure preferential placement in athletics or extracurricular activities which might not be available to all students.
They can use their racial privilege to use the law against black people and other minorities when making police complaints for things that aren’t actually illegal. A recent report revealed that over 100 Karens were arrested for making race-based complaints in 2017 alone.
It is essential to keep these people in check and prevent abuse of power. The most effective way to do this is through legislation which penalizes their actions and prevents similar incidents from reoccurring.
White
In the age of Black Lives Matter, many white women are taking action by using social media, reading anti-racist literature and attending protests to confront their racist classmates. But none of these online videos has gained as much traction as “Karen,” a meme featuring an elderly white woman demanding to speak with a manager.
These videos are incredibly distressing, yet some consider them essential for showing how racism still permeates neighborhoods, workplaces and colleges. They expose an invisible yet systemic form of prejudice which often goes undetected but remains present due to socio-economic power dynamics.
Some critics point out the majority of these incidents involve white women, raising questions about how they’re being perceived. On the other hand, some argue these incidents reveal America’s widespread white supremacy and classism, suggesting it would be unfair to focus only on situations involving women when there are just as many Karen encounters involving men.
Experts, such as Matt Schimkowitz (author of Know Your Meme), told Yahoo Life that Karens are often observed in situations where white privilege is being utilized to the benefit of one group at the expense of others. Examples include women demanding manager attention for minor infractions like ordering an incorrect dish at a restaurant or getting the wrong drink; but they can also be triggered by less public and cat-and-mouse interactions.
In February, Amy Cooper, a white woman named Amy, was labeled as a Karen after calling the police on black birder Christian Cooper for refusing to stop her from walking her dog in Central Park. Though her actions may have been motivated by self-interest, the incident still raised serious questions about Amy’s privilege.
In 2005, the name “Karen” was coined; however its exact origins remain uncertain. Some speculate it came from a Dane Cook comedy special broadcast on TV at that time; other theories suggest it might have been inspired by white cop-caller nicknames like “Barbecue Becky” or “Permit Patty,” which are frequently given to white women who contact law enforcement on Black Americans.
Black
Racial profiling, harassment and arrests of rude Karens that have gained notoriety on social media are often the result of invisible yet deeply-seated racism that pervades neighborhoods and workplaces across America. It could take the form of a neighborhood committee ignoring complaints by people of color or an employer overlooking someone of color for promotion.
In recent months, the “Karen” meme has gained momentum to mock sexism and white privilege. It’s become an expression for middle-aged white women who feel entitled to ruin everyone else’s day. This sort of unsavory subculture has even earned itself its own name: r/EntitledKarens.
Lillian Glass, a communications and body-language expert in Los Angeles, believes there are multiple reasons why Karens can get so worked up, from stress to the coronavirus pandemic. These factors combine to create an environment where rage is possible, she states.
Glass points out that Karens who post about suspicious-looking people in their neighborhood on Nextdoor often do so out of a sense of entitlement, or to protect their own neighborhood from further disruption.
She noted that while these instances of sexism and racism are nothing new, they have become more frequent in recent years due to social issues like the CDC’s mask mandate for hospital workers and the rebirth of Black Lives Matter, which have ignited a national conversation about racial bias and privilege.
Schimkowitz notes that video footage of these incidents highlights an extreme version of this problem. She explains how white people often refer to people of color by alliterative nicknames that can be used to identify specific incidents – names like Barbecue Becky, Golfcart Gail, Permit Patty and Cornerstore Caroline.
She noted that these nicknames don’t necessarily indicate guilt of a crime, but rather serve to highlight the underlying issue: that white people are using their power and privilege for personal gain. These practices stem from centuries-old “white cop-caller” culture.
Asian
In 2018, social media was filled with video of Karens — snarky, angry women caught on camera complaining about things such as mask mandates or people of color they encounter on the street. Some criticize these incidents for revealing an invisible yet deeply-seated racism that pervades neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and businesses across America.
One of the most infamous recent cases was when a white woman named Cooper called the police on a black man in Central Park in July 2018. This incident received millions of views, spurred new hate crime legislation, and ignited global protests for racial justice.
But it wasn’t the only arrest of rude Karens in recent months. Innumerable other variations of this name have been used to label white women who have engaged in racist or otherwise inappropriate acts publically, from asking to speak to a manager at a fast-food restaurant when their food arrives incorrectly, to telling a bikini-clad woman to cover up, to trying to reserve parking without paying.
Experts contend that the racism underlying these incidents reveals white people’s attempt to maintain their dominance in socioeconomic power. This type of racism, they assert, can take the form of an unfriendly neighborhood committee or a boss who overlooks someone of color for promotion.
According to some social scientists, racism may extend even to black families. A paper published last year in the Journal of Research on Aggression revealed that black children often learn how to suppress their emotions in order to conform to social norms that favor whites and are rooted in a legacy of racial violence.
These same social scientists discovered that white women are more likely to display signs of anger, such as crying or throwing up, than their black counterparts. This could be related to a toxic myth that women must remain quiet and keep their emotions under wraps in the face of sexy and manly patriarchal stereotypes, they suggest.