The Problem With the ‘Karen’ Meme

When you call her ‘Karen’, you forget the racist’s real name

Karen avalanche

Full disclosure: my wife’s name is Karen.

So, this rant is both an observation on the effectiveness of referring to all racist white women by one encompassing moniker, and also an attempt to clear my sweet un-racist dark-skinned wife Karen’s beautiful name.

More than a month ago, she was tagged in a Facebook post by one of our friends. The poster had tagged several Karens we know, in a joke about how Karens go straight to the manager when they enter a store. It was funny, and we both laughed it off.

That was the beginning of an avalanche of Karen jokes and memes that I began to see across the internet.

A scarlet Karen

There doesn’t seem to be a real starting point to this whole Karen thing. It appears to be just one name, out of many, that went viral to describe a cell phone wielding, middle-aged, caucasian woman who unjustly calls the police on a person of color.

I started wondering about the purpose of this trend. I suppose it’s like branding someone with a scarlet letter. The problem, of course, is that a scarlet letter was used to visibly identify someone who has committed adultery.

But the name Karen is not a visible mark.

And if the crime that all these Karens had committed was just that they complained loud enough to the store manager to get an extra 10% off a skirt at Target, that would be one thing.

It becomes much worse now that we know that racist has been added to the description of a Karen.

Can I speak to the meme manager?

In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed several serious Karen stories where the racist involved has been referred to by the name Karen plus her location (ie. drugstore Karen). The issue I raise is that the real name of these women gets lost and forgotten.

Say their real name. People should remember their real name.

But by calling them Karen, their real names are an afterthought.

Like here. Or here. Or here.Or here. Or here. Or so many other places on the internet. The name Karen is remembered and the real name is forgotten.

Start using their real names more often, please.

Can I speak to a manager about this? Someone higher than you?

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