Is Karen considered a racial slur?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, this new idea that any kind of group-based animosity can be justified by framing it as "punching up" is really scary.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Call out the behavior. Call Amy Cooper a racist and call Elon Musk as a$$hat.

Why isn't calling Amy Cooper a racist enough? Because apparently some of you also want to make this about her gender.

As we see every day with Karen, these other facets like race and gender quickly come to the fore.

Now the racist aspect of Karen isn't even the most important thing about her. Instead, term Karen is used to stomp down any woman who isn't as submissive as you want her to be.

For similar reasons, I'm not a fan of the moderator's suggestion to call obnoxious idiots "Elons." Yes, Elon Musk is a huge a$$hat. And yes, white males have historically had more privilege than anybody else on the planet. But don't make it about his gender, instead just call Elon an a$$hat.

But Amy Cooper wasn't only a racist. She also intentionally tapped into her gender as a wealthy white woman of privilege to smear a black man. Why do some of you refuse to recognize the intersectionality of race and gender here? White women of privilege can also do evil and in fact there has been a long-documented pattern of bad behavior by white powerful women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Amy Cooper? When the media called her a Karen, was that sexism or simply calling out abusive behavior by a wealthy white woman using her privilege to inflict injury on an innocent POC?

Amy Cooper is a racist, full stop. No need to resort to a slur about her gender etc.

Actually there was more to that story, Bari Weiss did a follow-up. She didn’t defend her, but it’s not that simple.

Yeah, not nearly as cut and dried as the click bait media wanted to portray it.

People talk about power differentials; Amy Cooper lost her job and this incident basically ruined her life. The guy involved was just given a National Geographic show on bird watching. Who hs the power here?

Yeah, the guy wasn’t exactly an innocent angel in that situation, but black privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The word is here to stay. It is used to describe any woman who is acting in a bossy and entitled way, regardless of race. I am a white middle aged man and I used it recently to describe a woman, who happens to be black, who treated the staff rudely at a Potbelly. Example: “you will get your sandwich in a minute and please stop being such a Karen.”

At a certain point hopefully using this term will be considered crass, because it is. I couldn’t imagine saying it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The word is here to stay. It is used to describe any woman who is acting in a bossy and entitled way, regardless of race. I am a white middle aged man and I used it recently to describe a woman, who happens to be black, who treated the staff rudely at a Potbelly. Example: “you will get your sandwich in a minute and please stop being such a Karen.”

So, what would you say to a man behaving in the same manner?

I'm a teacher and had a student say "okay, Karen" to one of my instructional assistants when she asked him to do something in class. That young man got to spend lunch with me reflecting on his behavior.

While I agree that the behavior you described above is rude and should be called out, the term "Karen" has evolved beyond its original intent and is often used in a sexist way. Women who speak up for themselves or make any sort of demand are often labeled as a "Karen."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The word is here to stay. It is used to describe any woman who is acting in a bossy and entitled way, regardless of race. I am a white middle aged man and I used it recently to describe a woman, who happens to be black, who treated the staff rudely at a Potbelly. Example: “you will get your sandwich in a minute and please stop being such a Karen.”

At a certain point hopefully using this term will be considered crass, because it is. I couldn’t imagine saying it.

agree it is crass. you can clutch your pearls all you like, but in the real world people do sometimes use crass terms. honestly you sound like a bit of a Karen yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Amy Cooper? When the media called her a Karen, was that sexism or simply calling out abusive behavior by a wealthy white woman using her privilege to inflict injury on an innocent POC?

She's not a Karen. Or maybe she's a Karen plus plus plus. When people say someone is a Karen, they're usually referring to someone who is unhappy with their Starbucks order.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not a racial slur, as it’s not used on white men. To be quite frank this term was created due to the numerous times white women have lied and used white supremacy to get brown/black POC arrested, talked to unjustly by police, or even killed.

White women in particular are the most protected, this is not to say they don’t face heinous acts like other women. Karen refers to white or white passing women who are entitled and give out micro aggressions.

If anything it is sexist, as white supremacy is held up by white men as well.

Completely off the mark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Yes. It is directed at one race in particular.

+1. This is an awful slur that is for some reason tolerated. I appreciate that teacher shutting it down.

This is a bit dramatic, and honestly exactly the reason people use it to describe a certain kind of person. It's on the level of calling someone a busy body. Calling it a slur is disrespectful to the experience of people who actually get slurs lobbed at them, and is typical centering behavior of exactly the kind of person who gets called a Karen.

I view “Karen” as a way to silence women. Particularly middle aged, white women. So maybe you don’t think it’s a slur, but I do.

Also, women right here on this website have expressed fear that speaking up about anything will get them labeled a “Karen”. It’s not ok to silence women in this way. Use your words if you think someone is misbehaving. Using a slur like “Karen” is frankly just lazy and dumb.

Karen is a word 🙄 It's not actually hurting you.

Following your logic the "n" word is just a word too, it's not hurting anyone. You are a joke.

There's a difference. Nobody calls their child the N word, but they may call their daughters Karen.

well that is an interesting point, but if we are being truly honest and modern, it is not so clear whether a child is more likely to be called the K word or the N word. I would be willing to bet that NOBODY would name their daughter Karen these days. I find that a bit sad because I always thought it was a pretty name. But serious question - does anyone on this thread know of a family who has named a baby girl Karen in the last 2-3 years? as for the N word, it's only a matter of time before some BLM type rapper does name their child that (or maybe the version that ends in "a") for the shock value and means to keep all racial animosity going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The word is here to stay. It is used to describe any woman who is acting in a bossy and entitled way, regardless of race. I am a white middle aged man and I used it recently to describe a woman, who happens to be black, who treated the staff rudely at a Potbelly. Example: “you will get your sandwich in a minute and please stop being such a Karen.”

"OK, eunich. Please butt out and when it's your turn, you can deal with the staff about your own order however you want. OK, incel?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The word is here to stay. It is used to describe any woman who is acting in a bossy and entitled way, regardless of race. I am a white middle aged man and I used it recently to describe a woman, who happens to be black, who treated the staff rudely at a Potbelly. Example: “you will get your sandwich in a minute and please stop being such a Karen.”

At a certain point hopefully using this term will be considered crass, because it is. I couldn’t imagine saying it.

agree it is crass. you can clutch your pearls all you like, but in the real world people do sometimes use crass terms. honestly you sound like a bit of a Karen yourself.

NP. It’s crass and it sounds trashy, so it may define the people who use it as being trashy, which is a good thing. So, I guess, use it all you want, you’ll attract like company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Amy Cooper? When the media called her a Karen, was that sexism or simply calling out abusive behavior by a wealthy white woman using her privilege to inflict injury on an innocent POC?

Amy Cooper is a racist, full stop. No need to resort to a slur about her gender etc.

Actually there was more to that story, Bari Weiss did a follow-up. She didn’t defend her, but it’s not that simple.

Yeah, not nearly as cut and dried as the click bait media wanted to portray it.

People talk about power differentials; Amy Cooper lost her job and this incident basically ruined her life. The guy involved was just given a National Geographic show on bird watching. Who hs the power here?

IKR? The guy who did the follow-up investigation into this was a black reporter. Unfortunately, the follow-up, more complicated version of the story, is not good click-bait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Amy Cooper? When the media called her a Karen, was that sexism or simply calling out abusive behavior by a wealthy white woman using her privilege to inflict injury on an innocent POC?

Amy Cooper is a racist, full stop. No need to resort to a slur about her gender etc.

Actually there was more to that story, Bari Weiss did a follow-up. She didn’t defend her, but it’s not that simple.

Yeah, not nearly as cut and dried as the click bait media wanted to portray it.

People talk about power differentials; Amy Cooper lost her job and this incident basically ruined her life. The guy involved was just given a National Geographic show on bird watching. Who hs the power here?

IKR? The guy who did the follow-up investigation into this was a black reporter. Unfortunately, the follow-up, more complicated version of the story, is not good click-bait.

The other Cooper knew what he was doing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The word is here to stay. It is used to describe any woman who is acting in a bossy and entitled way, regardless of race. I am a white middle aged man and I used it recently to describe a woman, who happens to be black, who treated the staff rudely at a Potbelly. Example: “you will get your sandwich in a minute and please stop being such a Karen.”

So, what would you say to a man behaving in the same manner?

I'm a teacher and had a student say "okay, Karen" to one of my instructional assistants when she asked him to do something in class. That young man got to spend lunch with me reflecting on his behavior.

While I agree that the behavior you described above is rude and should be called out, the term "Karen" has evolved beyond its original intent and is often used in a sexist way. Women who speak up for themselves or make any sort of demand are often labeled as a "Karen."

Good for you. What did he say at lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about Amy Cooper? When the media called her a Karen, was that sexism or simply calling out abusive behavior by a wealthy white woman using her privilege to inflict injury on an innocent POC?

Why didn’t they just call her by her real name and call out the behavior?

This. There was no reason to bring her gender into it... unless, of course, your goal is also to put down women in general.

And of course you know very well that Karen now goes waaaaayyyy beyond Amy Cooper. It's used to any older, white woman who isn't being as submissive as you want her to be.

That has similarities with the New England witch trials. Sometimes those were a land grab from a widow without sons, or because an older woman was asserting her rights.