Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • - Are you filming me?

  • - [Man] Okay Karen.

  • - Hi, my name is Karen.

  • - Hi, I'm Karen.

  • - [Both] My name is Karen.

  • - Or as my mother calls me Karen.

  • And yes, I have definitely seen the Karen meme.

  • - And I'm not a Karen - I'm a Karen

  • but I'm not a Karen.

  • - What's a Karen?

  • Why is it everywhere and where did it come from?

  • This is the origin of the Karen meme.

  • (upbeat music)

  • When most people think of Karen, an image of a white lady

  • with Kate Gosselin's 2008 haircut comes to mind.

  • - The meme has evolved from someone entitled,

  • who has a specific style haircut,

  • and always wants to speak to the manager,

  • if they don't get their way,

  • do something a little more complex in higher stakes.

  • - Karen has come to represent a white entitled woman,

  • who is capable of causing harm to people around her,

  • in particular people of color.

  • - So they tried to walk right here

  • and she blocked them.

  • - Get access to the river! - Yell at me some more.

  • Okay Karen.

  • - A hysterical middle-aged woman,

  • with a complete lack of awareness of her privilege.

  • Why is Karen middle-aged?

  • Well, the name's fallen in popularity as of 2018

  • it sits at 637th for US girl names.

  • Karen was consistently in the top 10 lists

  • in the 50's and 60's.

  • So today, there are a lot of Karens

  • in their 50's and 60's.

  • - Growing up, it seemed like all

  • of my friends' parents were named Karen.

  • My teacher was named Karen.

  • I didn't know a single other Karen my age.

  • - But why aren't we dissing other names of that era?

  • Why not Linda or Susan?

  • There are some theories on why

  • this name in particular, became the inspiration

  • for this character archetype.

  • Some editors point to Ray Liotta yelling at Karen

  • in the 1990 film, GoodFellas. Karen, where's the stuff

  • that I left Karen?

  • - As the inspiration for the idea

  • that Karens are infuriating.

  • - Karen!

  • - I feel like Dane Cook made Karen a thing, 15 years ago.

  • - Every group has a Karen, and she's always a bag of douche.

  • (laughing)

  • - A clearer connection to the modern day meaning of Karen,

  • can be found in the 2004 film, Mean Girls.

  • When the airy Karen asks.

  • - So you're from Africa.

  • Why are you white?

  • - Oh my God Karen, you can't just ask people

  • Why they're white!

  • - It's also possible Mean Girl's writer Tina Fey,

  • used the name Karen because it was already

  • in the public consciousness.

  • It's really a what came first chicken or the egg situation.

  • But long before the name Karen became a pejorative,

  • the character type had long been recognized by another name.

  • According to Georgia tech Professor Andre Brock,

  • during the time of slavery,

  • black people used to refer to a white woman

  • exerting undue power over them as a Miss Ann.

  • Even after slavery, there was a general fear

  • among the black community,

  • that a white woman could easily make a false

  • or exaggerated accusation,

  • and send a lynch mob after any particular black man.

  • Given the black community's history

  • of interacting with the stereotype,

  • and the popularity of the name Karen,

  • in a certain age bracket,

  • black people started commonly referring

  • to these types of women as Karens.

  • Although the timeline is nebulous,

  • the rise of smartphones and social media,

  • further spread and popularized the term.

  • - Has anyone ever called me a Karen pejoratively?

  • I don't think so, but I really wouldn't know.

  • - I think I don't fall

  • into the middle age entitled white lady category

  • that Karens are usually associated with.

  • And so no one's ever called me Karen pejoratively.

  • - Toward the end of the past decade,

  • people were filming and posting more incidents with Karens.

  • It was common for each woman perpetuating

  • the incident, to get around a alliterative nickname.

  • For example in 2018, there was Permit Patty.

  • A woman who called the cops on an eight year old black girl,

  • selling water without a permit.

  • There was BBQ Becky.

  • - This lady right here wants to sit here and call the police

  • on them for having a barbecue at the lake

  • as if this is not normal.

  • - She's like, "It's against the law.

  • I'm gonna home and call the police."

  • So I'm like, "You know what, do what you want to do."

  • I've been here 42 something years.

  • I know where I can and cannot barbecue.

  • - I was walking by and I saw her harassing him and stopped.

  • And he's done nothing.

  • He's been sitting there, chilling the entire time.

  • - He was really aggressive towards him.

  • - It's nothing to do with their race.

  • - It seems like a new Jim Crow going on.

  • Because for some reason every time I see it,

  • black people ones targeted.

  • - Karen incidents often include,

  • a Karen unnecessarily contacting the police.

  • - In like middle school,

  • my friends and I were all over at my buddy's place

  • for his birthday.

  • We all had like these airsoft guns,

  • but they have like fat orange tips on them.

  • Short, tiny plastic pellets or whatever,

  • like super harmless.

  • Halfway through the party, this woman comes out

  • and like starts freaking out about all these kids.

  • And she called the cops.

  • It was like really, really scary

  • 'cause I was the only black kid.

  • Definitely could've ended a lot differently,

  • a lot differently.

  • You know like you see a Karen on the internet

  • like wilding out and you don't really think twice,

  • or you laugh about it.

  • But like in other people's cases,

  • like they're getting the police called on them.

  • And then those situations escalate,

  • and then people are getting hurt.

  • - A Karen is a person who calls the police

  • because quote on quote, you make them feel unsafe.

  • Even though you're not doing anything.

  • A Karen calls your manager,

  • just because you're not giving them what they want.

  • They're using their identity, their privilege,

  • to their advantage.

  • - Often you'll see a Karen

  • harassing service industry workers.

  • - So I used to work at a coffee shop.

  • So we were super busy,

  • I was the only one there.

  • - So I used to work as a host

  • for a very popular restaurant called Sugarfish.

  • - And this one woman, she wanted to order a sandwich

  • and she asked me what type of bread it came on.

  • A sourdough type of bread.

  • She goes, "Oh, can I see it?"

  • If there was any other day, I would love to do that for you.

  • But there was a line out the door right now.

  • And she was like, "Well, I don't wanna order it

  • if I don't know what it looks like."

  • Here comes Karen, and she's like, "Hi there

  • I have a reservation for six.

  • I talked to your manager on the phone.

  • He said that you all could sit and spread away."

  • But you were talking to me on the phone.

  • You're trying to pull one on me

  • is what you're trying to say.

  • - I went on to the person behind her

  • started taking their order,

  • and she was like, no.

  • Like, I don't want anyone else to order it before me.

  • It's my turn right now.

  • And she starts yelling.

  • She's like, "This is horrible,

  • I hate this establishment."

  • And then she gets like a bunch of plates,

  • she just smashes it down.

  • And like the plates fall all over the place,

  • You know, there's food on the ground.

  • Why would you do that?

  • Who gives you the rights to think

  • that you have power over somebody else?

  • - Why I would call that woman a Karen,

  • is because she kind of felt entitled.

  • Like oh, everyone else can wait for me.

  • it's my turn now,

  • I'm the star of the show.

  • - So I supported the Karen memes,

  • because it sheds light of kind of like the privilege

  • these people get,

  • This white woman, she can never do anything wrong.

  • You know, she's always correct.

  • - I think it's really important that we talk about it,

  • because back then we didn't have Karens

  • because no one was recording any incidents.

  • No one was recording any races.

  • When no one was recording anything.

  • So I feel like recording a Karen incident,

  • does bring light to racism.

  • - The Karen meme graduated from popularity

  • to virality with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic,

  • and the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter

  • Civil Rights Movement.

  • Google trends for Karen from the last 12 months,

  • show an increase in searches,

  • starting around middle to late March.

  • The Corona virus version of the Karen meme,

  • became particularly poignant in the hellscape of 2020.

  • - Where'd you get that from?

  • - This Karen, refuses to wear a face mask in public

  • or in stores, harasses service industry workers,

  • and spreads COVID-19 conspiracy theories.

  • - Give me a manager.

  • - I am the manager. - She is the manager.

  • - Ma'am, you need to leave

  • - I am rich.

  • Something you've never seen. - Bye Karen.

  • The most Karenny Karen however, is Amy Cooper.

  • A New Yorker who called the cops,

  • and said a black bird watcher, was threatening her life

  • after he asked her, to put her dog on a leash.

  • That same day, George Floyd was killed

  • by Minneapolis police officers.

  • People began linking the racism of Karen's like Amy Cooper,

  • to wider and more lethal instances

  • of systemic racism and police brutality.

  • But what do Karens really think

  • about their name being used as a pejorative?

  • - I was a little upset, a part of me really did think

  • about who could I complain to about this meme?

  • - When the Karen meme started gaining traction,

  • I was horrified obviously

  • because the name has a negative connotation to it now.

  • And I didn't really want people to associate me.

  • - Not liking the Karen meme,

  • is something a Karen and a Karen would do.

  • - When I first encountered the Karen meme,

  • honestly I didn't even connect it to myself,

  • because I know that I'm not like that.

  • - You know I have a duty as a good Karen,

  • to prove that there are exceptions to the name.

  • And it doesn't really bother me anymore

  • because I know the meme isn't attacking my name per se,

  • but rather it's labeling a certain type of person.

  • - We have a knock for turning our hurt to humor,

  • but my only concern would be that the Karen meme

  • just stays a meme.

  • And it doesn't evolve and it doesn't move towards

  • any sort of action.

  • - In 2019, Oregon passed a bill

  • to punish racist 911 callers.

  • Attempting to put a stop to people

  • like the Central Park Karen.

  • In July, a San Francisco supervisor introduced

  • the Caren Act.

  • Which stands for,

  • Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-emergencies.

  • Hopefully with some reflection and change,

  • this type of racist person can be a thing of the past.

  • Let's all work together and kill Karen.

  • I mean, not the person.

  • The need for the meme.

  • Kill the need for the meme.

  • The Karen in quotes.

  • You get it, you get it.

  • I'll stop, now.

- Are you filming me?

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it