It’s both actually.
Hey, ANYONE who acts like that should be called out by their name and held accountable without regard to who they are or their socio-economic position in life. Including Donald Trump. It’s the only way we’ll get to equitable justice under the law, fair and equal representation in the government who decides how you get to live your life, and equal economic and educational opportunities to make the most of yourself and your family for all Americans.
By denying the use of their name, they are being protected from accountability. By protecting their name and reputation, they are being denied accountability. This harms them as much as they have harmed and so perpetuates the cycle — it never gets a chance to fully resolve. Reputations can be redeemed and rebuilt. Stagnation will just continue this awful rot. Round and round we go, can we please step off this merry-go-round?
“Karen” is a half measure at best and as such, it fell into a dangerous stereotype so fast it made my head spin. I’d barely heard the word and checked the urban dictionary and suddenly it was everywhere and the meaning and use was spreading beyond the confines of using performative hysterics for a racist agenda.
It’s too easy for a clever meme to shift from making a point about racism into the equally stagnant bigotry of misogyny. Way too easy. It didn’t take 2 seconds. And it’s growing. Further, with our overly polarized thinking, any earned and true rebuke against the use of “Karen" gets blasted as being racist or “unwoke” to racial issues. There’s no rationality to that and you can’t equivocate, it’s not a binary choice. One should not have to tolerate hate towards one group to be for the advocacy of another. No one wins. It’s just playing “hot potato” with hate. The potato always comes back around. Always.
This is dangerous to all women. White ones like myself, sure, but also black ones, brown ones, indigenous ones, Asian ones — all of us.
This may be dangerous to the black community because of what it sets the stage for and how it can be used against this glorious moment by the PTB. It’s been done before and they will try again (hell, they’re already half way through the same old tired playbook).
We should say their names. Amy Cooper, Lisa Alexander, Alison Ettel, Jennifer Schulte, Hilary Mueller, Lena Hernandez, Teresa Klein, Linda Korn, and Jillian Wuestenberg. (I know there are others.) We should say their names so their actions are attributed to the individuals they are and not whole groups. They should be held accountable under the law and face appropriate penalties.
“Karen” cannot be held to appropriate account. But Amy Cooper can. When Amy Cooper faces a court she comes to understand that the law isn’t there solely to protect her fragile ego but to protect others from her as well. She comes to know in intimate terms that the law applies to her too. And so do all the other “Karens”. But that can’t happen as long as they are cloistered away in group identity. That group identity will become reviled unfairly and dangerously because who among us exists in only one group?
We shouldn’t toss around that “hate potato”. We don’t need to, to be righteous in cause and it will only further harm us all in the end. We should drop that potato. It’s a stupid, childish game. We shouldn’t still be playing it. There are, after all, much better games to play.
Other than my disagreement over the “Karen” meme and it’s growing misuse, I really enjoyed and appreciated your thoughts. Your article is well written and thoughtful. Hope to see more from you in the future.
