The Common Bond Between A Black Woman and A “Karen”

We both dial 911, but for very different reasons.

“Karens” have recently gone viral, but Black people have been privy to this population since the beginning of time.

We are painfully familiar with the “frightened White woman” who sees the Black man, Black woman, nay even the Black child, and immediately believes these people who are just minding their own business have the premeditated intention to cause her bodily harm.

This “Karen Mentality” that assumes Black people have nothing better to do with their time than to worry about where they are and what they’re doing is one of the reasons this phrase was created:

“Oh, the Caucasity!”

Dear sweet Karen, I can assure you with every ounce of my being that involving myself in your daily affairs is the last thing that I would purposely commit myself to. I’ve seen the damage you are capable of doing which is why it is ME, not you, who should be the first one grabbing a cellphone to call 911 when I see YOU coming down the street.

I’m sure the Karens are wondering: “Why on earth would this Black woman be afraid of little old me?”

I’m very glad you asked because I’m more than happy to explain.

Exhibit A: Central Park Karen

A Black man, minding his own business and birdwatching in Central Park, is verbally attacked by a White woman after asking her to keep her dog on a leash, per the park rules. She immediately reverts to the age-old “I feel threatened” tactic invented by the Karen Community and calls 911, but not before calmly* letting the man know:

“I’m calling the cops. I’m going to tell them that there’s an African-American man threatening my LIFE.”

(*There is an emphasis on the word “calmly” because after viewing the video, it is clear this woman is in no immediate danger. In fact, it is the man who is heard repeatedly saying, “Please don’t come near me.”)

Exhibit B: Permit Patty

Apparently even children aren’t exempt from the Karens of the world. An eight-year-old Black child selling water bottles outside her home in San Francisco is confronted by a White woman demanding a permit from the child to sell water.

When the woman proceeds to call 911 (on the eight-year-old “armed” with a bucket of water bottles) the child’s mother begins to record the incident. The woman then crouches behind a wall, clutching her cellphone of course, to avoid being caught “acting a Karen” on camera.

The young child was simply selling water bottles to earn money for tickets to Disneyland. She was not causing harm to anyone in the neighborhood. I would venture to say she was actually improving humanity by providing cold water to parched individuals in the middle of a hot California summer.

Exhibit C: Barbeque Betty

On a sunny Sunday in Oakland, California, a Black family decided to head to Lake Merritt for a barbeque. However, once the barbeque was in full swing, a White woman approached the family and announced they were not allowed to use a charcoal barbeque pit in the park. Never mind that the park was equipped with barbeque pits for the specific purpose of, oh I don’t know…barbequing, but suddenly it was illegal when a Black family wanted to partake.

She proceeded to call 911 since apparently the family was indeed barbequing with charcoal on a “non-charcoal pit,” holding fast in her convictions that this was a crime worthy of jail time.

Oakland City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney wrote in a Facebook post regarding the incident, “I think it is really incumbent on all of us that when we call the police, it is for emergency purposes.”

The constant variable in each exhibit is a White woman calling 911 for a non-emergency event involving Black people. And since anyone with a television, or access to the internet (or who is just a sighted-person in America) is aware of what can transpire when the police show up to investigate a situation involving a Black person, these calls are dangerous and give reason to incite fear in the person in question.

America has historically protected White women from harm since it’s inception and continues to persecute anyone who dares to deprive the White woman of her right to feel safe in this world. Therefore, anyone that makes her feel threatened is going against the very values on which this country was built — which means they will have the dearest price to pay for their transgression.

Hence the reason why as a Black woman, I am more threatened by a Karen than anyone else. Karens have the power of dialing three little numbers and changing my life or the lives of my children in the blink of an eye.

God forbid my 6'2 Black son walking down the street is seen as a menace to a Karen and she calls 911, bringing a disgruntled, racist cop to the scene. My son would have no defense in this situation, even though his only “crime” would have simply been walking while black.

So yes, to all the Karens of the world, YOU are the one who perpetrates the real danger. It is YOU who is a malicious threat, not all Black people. It is YOU who causes our hearts to beat faster when we see you reach for that cellphone with break-neck speed because you are “afraid.”

Afraid of what exactly, Karen? Let’s explore that a bit.

Ask yourself, do Black people have a history of killing White people in this country? Did Black people kidnap your ancestors, rape them, enslave them, break up their family units, strip them of their names, language, homeland, and heritage, sell them into what was planned to be eternal servitude, and viciously beat and whip them when they tried to escape?

Did Black people ride horses while wearing white hooded sheets, place burning crosses in your yard, and hang your men because they even LOOKED at a Black woman?

Has a Black president ever told you or your family to “go back where you came from” or encouraged Black supremacist groups to harm you and your children?

Are there countless videos of Black police officers maliciously killing your White, unarmed sons? And even with video evidence, are these same Black cops who brutally killed your sons often acquitted of these heinous crimes?

If the answer “no” then it’s time you asked yourself this question:

Who in this country is JUSTIFIED of being afraid of whom?