"How the 'Karen Meme' Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood"

Because its easier to blame the (relatively) powerless than the powerful.

Why all this 'karen' stuff and the focus on women?

Because women are an easy target and it just feels so good when you finally have a legitimate reason to hate on them.

The male equivalent of Karen is Ken and usually they’re called rednecks, hillbillies, or racist a-holes.

Many men don’t tend to call the police because they often believe they can take care of it themselves as well as more men tend to own firearms in the US. They will use their guns to threaten people or their physical body whereas women do not often have guns and are in most cases physically weaker so are quicker to call the police for assistance.

A lot of people have realised that you can't easily draw a line around free thought/speech once you've allowed that whatever you think is Beyond The Pale should result in being silenced or fired from your job. And when you don' have that, the people who benefit in the end are always the ones already with power.

So she's a nasty racist bastard.

Where is the name for men who do this shit?

The men in USA who followed and shot a jogger to death?

The UK policeman who was filmed telling a guy if he wouldn't comply he'd make shit up, arrest him, and who would be believed?

What's the name for men?

Yes loads of white people (men and women) are out and out racist. Many more are heavily biased. Obviously in UK and USA being white gives you a much much easier time, all the time.

So why not talk about that?

Why all this 'karen' stuff and the focus on women? Where are the white men in this and what is the name for them? Dave? Roger? Anyone?

So Amy Cooper weaponised race and US specific racial history in her phone call. OK
See how there is no need to use a sexist meme to discuss it?

As if men haven't also weaponised race...there's no need for a sex-specific name for this.

Of course a women who is not in danger who does this is complicit and it is an awful thing to do, but she is still not responsible for the potential violence that might ensue - that is male violence.

Yes, she is. She called the police on purpose, changed her voice to act as if she was afraid and in danger when she was on the phone and then returned it to normal the moment she was off. She knew exactly what she was doing. It wasn’t just awful, she was purposely making a false call, wasting police time, and taking away from people who actually needed help. Those cops showed up because of her and both her and the man were gone.

Idk. When I grew up, there was an understanding that, as vibrant as US culture could be, we shouldn't export it lock, stock and barrel, to our own Anglophone nations.

Social media appears to have put paid to that idea.

It's toxic, and unhelpful, to assume the entire Anglophone world fits into an American context.

MN has got more racist in the last few years, or at least more posters are, or are happy to say it.

I suspect this mirrors society more generally.

I am also tired of USA stuff being taken as universal.

The point about Becky has not been addressed.

I have never heard of 'shaniqua' before today.

It reminds me of another thread where women were being berated for referring to thugs. Apparently it has racist connotations in the USA. It doesn't here, at all. If I think of a thug it's a white man, probably with a shaved head, and possibly being violent after a football match.

But the USA people wouldn't have it. I've told you it's racist, stop using it.

????

These shorthands don't travel well and are restricting conversations due to an argument over word usage.

revolting though.

The majority of people that voted ‘no’ to firing her commented that she should be reported to the platform, face up to being called out as a racist and deleted - so not out and out in favour of ignoring racism, just how to eradicate it.

...the vote score AND the number of deletions...^

Just looking at the vote score at the number of deletions early on, that’s shocking @BinkyBoinky

It’s not like Mumsnet to come out 67% in favour of ignoring racism, though. What is going on? (I know there’s always some dog whistling l.)

So weary of US discourse being imposed in non-US contexts. 'Karen' being but one example.

Ayishat Akanbi made a similar point - that outside the US we have to stop downloading everything the US puts online. It's poisonous.

I live in a country which has both a racist history, and in which racism still exists today. But it's not the flipping US, and the importation of what may or may not make sense in a US context into race discussions here achieves precisely zero.

Nobody needs to use sexism - a US sexist meme - to call out racist speech or racist acts.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3957704-To-report-this-person-to-their-employer-for-hate-speech

Wrong. But thanks for your effort. Looking at another thread on here currently, I wish that were the case. But clearly not.

It would probably help if you could point to the posts and threads you mean.

but she is still not responsible for the potential violence that might ensue - that is male violence

Equally responsible. The Karen meme comes about because these white women are complicit in that white male violence. Amy Cooper et al are stirring that shit up. For example she knew the police would have come storming over and possibly attack or kill the black man. Just so she could put him in his place for daring to talk to her as an equal. She and others like her deserve vilification. Regardless whether they were actually violent themselves or not. They just have to blubber and use it to their advantage. Calling them 'Karens' is bloody tame IMO.

What is unusual is that people here have more of an issue with the name ‘Karen’ as an insult than they do with the actions of the people in the OP being called a Karen.

Didn’t realise some of you had never heard of the term shaniqua, was certainly around where I have lived particularly thinking back to around 2010, still see memes and ‘oh your shaniqua is coming out’ type statements.

As for the posters trying to paint pictures of terrified white ladies scared of the mean black men, Incase you haven’t seen the videos of this kind of behaviour - the women always march towards them. Strange behaviour if you’re so ‘terrified’.

For me, one of the problems here is that it is legitimate for women be afraid of men - women are at risk from men - and this article doesn’t acknowledge that at all. Of course the woman in Central Park was not at risk from the man she harassed, but her terrible behaviour is being used very broadly to tarnish women who are afraid of men, often with every reason. It is racist to be particularly afraid of a black man because he is black, but it is not racist for a woman to be afraid of a black man because he is a man. And we absolutely must not forget the fact that the danger in a woman calling the cops on a black man is from male violence. Of course a women who is not in danger who does this is complicit and it is an awful thing to do, but she is still not responsible for the potential violence that might ensue - that is male violence.

What is unusual here is the MSM picking up a (typically idiotic) meme and trying to justify or legitimise it.

Very racist not best.

Im really interested if everyone here as offended by the shaniqua phrase and memes? Or are we only not cool about women being taken the piss out of if they’re white names?

I’ve never heard it in the UK, only in the States and am not offended by it because I don’t fit that stereotype nor do many Black women. I’m not offended by things that don’t fit me.