By Polina Pallieraki,
How did a name come to have such a negative connotation and become associated with concepts such as racism and prejudice?
Urban Dictionary describes a typical Karen as a white, middle-aged, short-headed woman. Arrogant and nervous. The one who, at the slightest request, asks an employee to speak to a manager because, for instance, the supermarket ran out of tea or the shoes that “were supposed to arrive in 1-3 working days and it is already 4” have not arrived yet. She is the one who will call the police because the music is too loud at 11 and 10 or because she will see a kid of African descent selling lemonade not far from her house (an example often brought up by the American media).
Karen is the one who complains about the new generation when she herself may never have worked in their life and had no means to enter the public sector. The one who refuses to wear a mask in church, or the one who will send her child to school without a mask, or believe that the coronavirus is fraud or lies — because “do you know anyone who has gotten sick?”. This is known as the Coronavirus Karen.
Despite the fact that this particular meme is heard more than the murder of George Floyd and after, “Karen” was born a few years ago, according to a report by the BBC. The term began to be used by African Americans in order to satirize the phenomena of racism and discrimination that they faced either because of the color of their skin or because of their social status. There is also the male version of Karen, Ken — though less popular.
And how was the meme in question connected to the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement? On May 25, African-American bird watcher Christian Cooper was walking in New York’s Central Park and encountered a woman named Amy Cooper, who had left her dog off-leash in an area of the park where it was necessary. So he asked her to put the seat belt back on and her response was to call the police, saying “There is an African-American man here threatening my life.” Cooper filmed the incident, the sister posted it on Twitter and before long it had gone around the world. Since then this particular one has been known as “Central Park Karen”. The woman publicly apologized, but was fired from her job and temporarily lost custody of her dog.
As the BBC reports, on the same day, George Floyd was killed by police officers, which ultimately led to the connection of the “Karen” of this planet with the broader concept of racism and police brutality.
Since then, many similar incidents have gone viral. An example is “Karen” who called the police when she saw an African-American writing the slogan “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on the entrance of a house. She said that the man was committing a crime at the time, lying about knowing the owners. But he did not know that the house belonged to him. The video garnered millions of views, prompting shoppers to boycott her beauty company and fire her husband, who was also present at the incident. The couple publicly apologized.
Another example is the “Karen” of the mall, who forcibly sat on the hood of a group of girls’ car to prevent them from parking in an empty space so that her daughter could put her own car.
However, as this meme has made its way from one end of the world to the other, many women believe it has started taking on a dose of sexism and ageism and losing its true meaning. In an op-ed for the Guardian, Hadley Freeman describes the term “Karen” as offensive to women and now used by men when they want to call them bitches. “Do I really need to point out the sexism of a meme about a female name, which started as a man’s bitterness towards his ex-wife and ended up being a way to tell a woman to shut up?” wonders the columnist, writing copious lines about how a “white middle-aged mother” automatically becomes the victim of a kind of racism, even if she just says something with a little more intensity.
The response came from a Washington Post columnist, whose real name is Karen, African-American Karen Attiah, who says that Freeman almost forgets to mention racial racism and whether the black community has invented that term to wake up the public. For the phenomena of racism, this does not mean that this is sexist. Despite the fact that “Karen” is a female name, it is not an attack on white, middle-aged women — especially since such nicknames have occasionally been released in male versions. “And if you feel oppressed, when no one is oppressing you, this is the behavior of a “Karen” concludes the columnist.
As a TMZ report revealed, the viral meme of “Karen” is being transferred to the big screen, starring “Orange is the new black” actress Taryn Manning. The story has a white woman named Karen White, starting “war” with her new African-American neighbors.
Nevertheless, no one can help, but be concerned when hearing such different opinions. Maybe, in trying to fight stereotypes, we end up reproducing them.
Are we in danger of categorizing an entire group of women as racist, when not all of them actually are? Was such a negative connotation unfairly given to a very common name in America? Perhaps, if we constantly and arbitrarily reproduce it without knowing the real meaning, we will extend the already existing issue.
References
- Όνομα Κάρεν και ρατσισμός στην Αμερική. Bovary.gr. Available here
- Γυναίκα Κάρεν-Ρατσισμός-Meme. Iefimerida.gr. Available here
- Το φαινόμενο Κάρεν και η παρουσία του στο πχορουμ. phorum.com.gr. Available here
