https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oLx6fKWk84
By now, the “Karen” meme has been documented in numerous viral videos of white women ranting at a man or woman who is a different race. When I first saw one of these, I thought, Is this real?
Apparently, it is. White women who think they’re entitled to… well, something…make spectacles of themselves in public places, demanding one thing or another. They seem to come from anywhere and everywhere, are usually either enraged or indignant – or both – and use some form of the word fuck frequently in the brief video clips.
Sometimes, these “Karens” are referred to as middle-aged white suburban women. I think of them as white female lunatics with big mouths who are often racist – you’re not white like me, you speak a language other than English and are therefore suspect, you’re an immigrant etc. etc. They often threaten to call the cops, like this woman in Central Park.
When this video went viral, she was fired from her job and her dog was taken away from her. You’ll see why on both counts.
So I’ve seen a number of these viral videos and I wonder several things. “Karen” reminds me of the obnoxious woman in a restaurant who demands a refund for her awful dinner (even though her plate is clean) or the white woman wherever who demands to :speak to the manager. But the archetype is strengthening, getting bolder and more prevalent. Why?
Here’s one explanation of the meme.
In this rapidly shifting world right now, the pandemic and general chaos of social unrest and politics seem to be exposing the dark underbellies of who we are as a country, a nation, a world – a humanity – and the picture is sordid. It’s easy for me to dismiss these women as trump supporters (especially the anti-mask women), but that’s too facile. There are undoubtedly democrats and independents in their numbers, too, as well as women who aren’t political at all but who just feel, well, entitled.
And that brings us back to the central question: Why? Why do these white women act like nut cases? What triggers them, sets them off? When I go down that path, I invariably run into an important question: Hey, didn’t your parents teach you how to behave? Were you always the neighborhood bully, the neighborhood blabber mouth, the obnoxious outlier? What made you feel entitled, bitch?
Here’s another from a Latino market. Watch this Karen having a tantrum whe she’s asked to put her mask on.
Manager told here she had to keep her mask on pic.twitter.com/onlbaFCJ4O
— Omar Guillen (@LucianLegacy) June 27, 2020
People are losing their minds. There is so much divisiveness that families are pitted against families, neighborhoods are polarized (the Trump sign across the street has labeled them someone I don’t want to be friends with), churches, it’s everywhere. Stoked by a man with absolutely no conscience, and absolutely no empathy for a country burning to the ground. We’re being weakened from the inside – which is what Khrushchev said would happen – they would take us without firing a shot. Russia works the long game. Another four years will break us. They have an asset in the White House that does not have America as his priority. We all know what his priority is.
If he wins in November, I need to move out of this country. But hey, no other country wants us. Trump has walled us in.