Over the last few months, a trend has emerged of “Karen” spotting: when white women are caught on video engaging in an act or behavior which is racially insensitive in public spaces.
Many Karen videos are shared online and quickly go viral, causing mass backlash, global disdain, financial ruination and professional consequences for those caught on camera.
1. Parking Lot Karen
A woman branded as “Karen” stood and blocked a parking spot, ruining an idyllic family day at the beach. A TikTok user decided to film her and it quickly went viral – with over 18 million views since being uploaded onto social media.
It comes as the “Karen” term is becoming increasingly popular on social media due to how entitled white women act in public spaces. A number of viral videos have featured this label, including one where she threatened to call the cops on a black man who asked her to leash her dog in New York City’s Central Park.
In another incident, a Black parking lot employee was harassed by a white woman who tried to pry into his work. Johnny Martinez, an African-American man working at River House Apartments in Nashville when the woman approached him and questioned what he was doing.
Once she realized he was Black, she became indignant and shouted at him for being a racist. She also used profanities against him while saying he wasn’t doing his job properly.
The woman then informed her daughter that the car had pulled up too close to them. At this point, both parties began shouting in frustration.
She then got out of her car and attempted to convince her to move. She even called a security guard for assistance in keeping calm.
Eventually, Karen left her vehicle and the video was deleted. However, it has made its way onto other corners of the internet where people have had plenty of things to say about it.
Finally, this issue needs to be addressed. Not only is using a camera to record other people’s activities an unprofessional practice, but it is also often illegal in most places.
2. Sidewalk Chalk Karen
On Reddit’s Entitled B**** subreddit, “Sidewalk Susan,” an old white woman commonly referred to as “Sidewalk Susan,” destroys a little girl’s sidewalk chalk drawings with her hose. She calls the artwork a “mess” and claims she was simply trying to make rain easier for it to wash away.
As you can imagine, this was an incredibly heartbreaking event. The video depicts an old woman brutally wiping down a child’s artwork as the child weeps. According to her mother, this wasn’t the first time the woman had been mean to her.
Before this incident, her daughter had repeatedly been yelled at for drawing on the sidewalk. Ultimately, she asked her daughter to stop drawing on it.
The woman also demanded her children stop using sidewalk chalk, something we can all agree is unacceptable. She even went so far as to post signs on their doors warning against it: “Kids are not allowed on this property.”
Karen has become a symbol of white women who frequently confront, taunt and police Black people on social media platforms.
Sidewalk Chalk Karen is just one of many public freakout videos featuring Karen that have surfaced online in recent months. These clips serve as a reminder that racism remains an issue in America today.
Karen has become increasingly associated with racist and classist behavior since its rise on social media in the late 2010s. It has now been applied to numerous incidents, such as those where women have refused masks in public.
3. Coughing Karen
Coughing Karen,” a maskless Nebraska woman dubbed “Coughing Karen,” has been fired from her job after being caught on video deliberately coughing on shoppers in a supermarket. Janene Hoskovec, 54, was quickly identified as the culprit by online investigators within days of the video going viral.
On Sept. 3, social media user Chaite A Bugz shared the incident at Super Saver in Lincoln and it sparked outrage after it garnered millions of views on TikTok.
According to TikTok’s description, Hoskovec followed a mother and child around the store without wearing face masks while coughing in their direction, calling them “sheep” for wearing masks. Additionally, she described them as having “allergies,” according to his TikTok description.
SAP, the company that employed Hoskovec, confirmed her termination after it discovered the video. Yesterday afternoon, SAP tweeted that they had reviewed the incident and Hoskovec “no longer works for SAP.”
TikTok users such as Danesh Guy have identified Hoskovec after searching through Nebraska anti-mask Facebook groups for her identity.
Groups in Germany identified her as an employee of SAP, but the company refused to provide a reason for her dismissal due to privacy concerns.
She’s not the first person to get caught on tape this way. In recent months, anti-mask “Karens” have made headlines for pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters, calling police on a Black birder and even refusing to enter a grocery store without wearing masks. While these incidents may be humorous at times, they also serve to highlight deeper-seated issues.
4. Kroger Karen
Video footage showing a white woman blocking a Black mother from leaving Kroger parking lot has gone viral. Shaneeka Montgomery-Strickland, from Livonia, Michigan, streaming the encounter live on Facebook.
The incident started when a white woman became annoyed with Montgomery-Strickland’s child for climbing on top of a shelf to reach a bottle of Gatorade. According to the post, she then called her a “bitch.”
Montgomery-Strickland attempted to leave the store when a woman stood behind her car, blocking her and her daughter’s path. She even refused to pull out of the parking lot – prompting Montgomery-Strickland to capture video footage of the entire encounter.
It appears that the white woman in the video is not a customer of the grocery store but simply an angry passerby who decided to stop Montgomery-Strickland from leaving. Additionally, she demands Strickland delete the video.
Social media has become a hotbed of this type of behavior, and many White people feel uncomfortable when Black people are recorded. In some cases, these interactions have turned into doxing or public humiliation.
However, there are also instances of Black people being filmed without any incident taking place. A recent TikTok video depicted a white woman trying to police the way an unassuming Black woman laughing without cause has been labeled as a “Karen” public freakout.
This isn’t the first time White women have been caught trying to police Black people. A video of an unidentified white woman falsely accusing a 14-year-old boy of taking his mother’s iPhone and assaulting his father at a hotel was labeled as a “Karen.”
5. Farmer’s Market Karen
Karen Washington has dedicated decades to championing urban farming as a means of providing all New Yorkers with access to fresh, local food. As the owner of City Farms – an urban farming farm serving as a community garden in Bronx neighborhoods – Karen is an influential voice and advocate for this cause, having been featured as a speaker at both the James Beard Foundation and Michelle Obama’s event.
Farmer’s Market Karen in Hyderabad is testing out an exciting array of indigenous jams and sauces. She’s also bringing in some stalls from other Indian cities to promote local products and encourage people to explore what they may not have tried before – like fresh cut jackfruit or bentonite clay and diatomaceous earth! If you’re nearby, be sure to stop by to check it out!
