Modern culture manifests in many strange ways and the current wave of calling these racist antagonists “Karens” is truly bizarre. This term seems like it was built out of a meme or an old joke and now it is tagged with catchy incident reminders for a series of videos. Overwhelmingly the people in these videos portray how terrible they are with their aggression and use of policing as part of their white privilege. These people should be put on blast for their racism, but because many of these offenders are not identified and often left anonymous – they are given the quick, blanket, “Karen’ label. Too often these people (typically women) claim to be the victim as they attack others – the male term is still shifting with “Ken” or “Kevin”, but has not stuck yet. With the advent of cell phone cameras and social media, these moments take on another life and present the situation to the world as real time witnesses.
Now “Karen” is synonymous with bitch and that really sucks for those named Karen. I personally know many great Karens and I feel bad for this type of slander against them. With new “Karen” videos popping up on an almost daily basis from an increasingly more unstable population, it feels like this trend is going to continue and self perpetuate. Maybe this will go the way of the Tide Pod challenge, but since this term is being used in a derogatory fashion in reaction to a wave of racist resurgence – I sense that this will linger longer. Internet culture rolls and flows with a hive mind and a twisted sense of consciousness – it is not completely immoral, but the pile on effect is real.
It does feel like this type of behavior is fostered by a facade of leadership that uses name calling and demeaning language instead of critical thinking. With Trump, the racists are emboldened and feeling victimized. The recent incident with the armed couple in St. Louis has demonstrated we are steps away from people crossing that line with deadly consequences. For now Karens are part of the collateral damage as the patterns continue and our society cracks with triggered instability on many levels. Fortunately it seems like the polls are against Trump and many are refuting his behavior, his rhetoric, his demeanor, his lack of leadership and his denial of responsibility. Right now we are in the crucible and stuck in the grind, but hopefully soon things will change as more people take action. Until then Karens are forced to endure sideline shame when we really should be labeling these offenders as the pieces of shit that they are and let the true Karens blend back into society with an unblemished name. If society wants to label these people, let’s call them Trumps and make the stink stick!
Written by: C.D Flash
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