The use of the name “Karen” in internet culture has become a humorous way to push back against a certain type of personality that most people disdain.
If you’re unfamiliar with the reference, a Karen is a busybody, who is self-righteous, entitled, demanding, and haughty. The type that regularly demands to “speak to the manager.”
Worst of all, she seeks to use her socioeconomic status to force her opinions on others. She never hesitates to call the police in a dispute, whom she (often rightfully) assumes will take her side. Whether Karen dislikes the color of your mailbox, the service she has received at a restaurant, or the color of people walking down her street, no one is safe from her ire.
While it feels good to make fun of Karen and have a laugh at her expense, for a large swath of the population this behavior is no laughing matter. Instead, Karens represent a long history of white women using the long arm of the law to harm innocent black men.
Just this week, an all too familiar video went viral online. This time the Karen was a finance executive named Amy Cooper, a resident of New York City. What transpires before the video begins, we’re left to piece together from Twitter, but it seems the situation took place in a popular bird-watching section of Central Park with strict leash laws. Cooper is asked by a young, black man to leash her dog, as required, as he is trying to bird watch. He begins filming when she becomes irate over this request.
What transpires next is, frankly, hard to watch.
Cooper proceeds to approach the man in an aggressive manner and tells him that she is going to call the cops and say that “there is an African American man threatening my life.” She does this all while clearly not fearing for her life, shoving her finger in his face, and quite literally strangling her dog throughout the one-minute video.
Next, she slowly backs away, says excuse me, and pulls her mask down for her performance. She proceeds to tell the 911 operator this very story, changing her voice and becoming more shrill and panicked as she repeatedly claims that an African American man is threatening her and her dog.
During the video, Cooper is never followed, remotely threatened, or in any danger whatsoever. Her dog, on the other hand, is in very clear and present danger from her.
This woman knew exactly what she was doing. She intended to have this man arrested, almost undoubtedly knowing that could lead to police violence, and she continuously played up the trope of a white woman under threat from a black man. Thankfully, this altercation did not end as it could have, and it is her name trending online today instead of his. Cooper has now apologized for her actions.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen viral videos exposing this kind of behavior.
From the Karen in California that called the police over a family barbecuing in a public park, to the Starbucks manager Karen who called the police on two black businessmen having a conversation, to the Karen who called the cops on a little black girl selling water without a permit, these malicious actors are pervasive in our society.
It’s past time we deal with them. Tracing all the way back to the murder of Emmett Till, and following the course of history throughout our justice system’s thousands of wrongful convictions, the false cries of white women have a record of getting black men killed.
Karens who use the law in this manner should be held accountable — and no, not through internet mobs, doxxing, or vigilante justice. It is a crime to make a false police report, and the penalties for needlessly endangering people’s lives should be much more widely enforced.
Hannah Cox (@HannahCox7) is a libertarian-conservative criminal justice reform activist and a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
