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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

"Stop being a Karen"

695 replies

ValsCupcakes · 05/09/2024 09:16

I heard this on Tuesday from a young, no more than 20, guy saying it to his girlfriend in the street in town.

Is this still going on? I'm out this afternoon at my friend's house. She is called Karen and is sick of it. I heard a woman phone into the radio too the other week saying her husband's satnav was an annoying female voice so he called it Karen.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
15
WomanFromTheNorth · 05/09/2024 21:31

It's just another way of silencing women - especially middle-aged ones.

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:34

@Lizzie67384

She’s right actually. Your ignorance is showing.

Read this. Trigger warning: distressing content.

A white woman who lied that a 14yo black boy grabbed her and was sexually crude to her admits she lied.

Decades too late, because he was beaten up and burned to death just based on her word.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/emmett-till-lynching-carolyn-bryant-donham.html

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:36

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:34

@Lizzie67384

She’s right actually. Your ignorance is showing.

Read this. Trigger warning: distressing content.

A white woman who lied that a 14yo black boy grabbed her and was sexually crude to her admits she lied.

Decades too late, because he was beaten up and burned to death just based on her word.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/emmett-till-lynching-carolyn-bryant-donham.html

Edited

So because one woman lied, that means ALL women at that time had more power than men? And men were just powerless victims, doing their bidding? Yeah, pull the other one 🤣🤣

RufustheFactualReindeer · 05/09/2024 21:37

I am only on page 6 so apologies if this has already been said

i am especially enjoying the posters who state categorically that there is a make version and it is ken

or keith

or kevin

or dave

😀

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:38

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:36

So because one woman lied, that means ALL women at that time had more power than men? And men were just powerless victims, doing their bidding? Yeah, pull the other one 🤣🤣

No one said white women had more power than white Ken.

You’re being deliberately obtuse. A white woman saying a black man looked at her funny gave the white man the perfect excuse to beat him up or lynch.

Read a book sometime.

RufustheFactualReindeer · 05/09/2024 21:38

theduchessofspork · 05/09/2024 13:44

That is much less used than Karen - along with Dave, Darren, Ken and Brian, which have all been suggested as the male equivalents by PPs

It’s also much less broadly used than Karen

Missed these ones 😀

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 21:40

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:34

@Lizzie67384

She’s right actually. Your ignorance is showing.

Read this. Trigger warning: distressing content.

A white woman who lied that a 14yo black boy grabbed her and was sexually crude to her admits she lied.

Decades too late, because he was beaten up and burned to death just based on her word.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/emmett-till-lynching-carolyn-bryant-donham.html

Edited

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

And that white woman is called the classic example of the Karen.

The second era Ku Klux Klan started after the 1915 screening of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation#Audience_reaction

Click on that link, now that's the power of the Karen. A man fired shots at the screen to help the precious white woman running from the "big bad black man".

The Birth of a Nation - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation#Audience_reaction

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:44

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:38

No one said white women had more power than white Ken.

You’re being deliberately obtuse. A white woman saying a black man looked at her funny gave the white man the perfect excuse to beat him up or lynch.

Read a book sometime.

Edited

Er the previous poster did; she said that white women were ‘precious’ and white men would do anything to protect them, ergo, if a white woman lied and said a black man raped her, white men would do her bidding and kill the black man/men

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:45

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:44

Er the previous poster did; she said that white women were ‘precious’ and white men would do anything to protect them, ergo, if a white woman lied and said a black man raped her, white men would do her bidding and kill the black man/men

It’s not about doing her bidding, it’s about using the white woman’s claims as an excuse to lynch black men.

Seriously if a book is too much trouble, watch To Kill a Mocking Bird.

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:46

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:45

It’s not about doing her bidding, it’s about using the white woman’s claims as an excuse to lynch black men.

Seriously if a book is too much trouble, watch To Kill a Mocking Bird.

But that’s not what the previous poster said 🤣

Ooo I love it when people get insulting to try and ‘win’ an argument! Always works 😉

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 21:47

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:44

Er the previous poster did; she said that white women were ‘precious’ and white men would do anything to protect them, ergo, if a white woman lied and said a black man raped her, white men would do her bidding and kill the black man/men

That's precisely what they did.

Are you being deliberately ignorant?

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:48

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:46

But that’s not what the previous poster said 🤣

Ooo I love it when people get insulting to try and ‘win’ an argument! Always works 😉

She didn’t say white women had more power than white men, you lied about that.

Ooo I love it when people get insulting to try and ‘win’ an argument! Always works 😉

Are you forgetting that you’ve just been deleted for calling @Eldrick47s an ‘absolute idiot’?

Or is that allowed because you’re white?

Lndnmummy · 05/09/2024 21:52

Not this again🙄

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 21:52

armadillio · 05/09/2024 21:48

She didn’t say white women had more power than white men, you lied about that.

Ooo I love it when people get insulting to try and ‘win’ an argument! Always works 😉

Are you forgetting that you’ve just been deleted for calling @Eldrick47s an ‘absolute idiot’?

Or is that allowed because you’re white?

Ahaha 🤣🤣 oh gosh, you’ve got me there!!

I’m not actually white but even if I was ‘idiot’ is in no way racist, so what is your point?

Lndnmummy · 05/09/2024 21:57

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 21:40

Yes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

And that white woman is called the classic example of the Karen.

The second era Ku Klux Klan started after the 1915 screening of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation#Audience_reaction

Click on that link, now that's the power of the Karen. A man fired shots at the screen to help the precious white woman running from the "big bad black man".

Heartbreaking. What gets me every single time on these threads is the aghast indignation at the term Karen, rather than the behaviour of the people being labelled the term. It is infuriating and heart breaking in equal measure.

Endless whataboutery, page after page after page.

White privilege.

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 21:59

For any remaining ignoramuses out there, the power of the Karen:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/opinion/racism-white-women.html

How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror

"We often like to make white supremacy a testosterone-fueled masculine expression, but it is just as likely to wear heels as a hood. Indeed, untold numbers of lynchings were executed because white women had claimed that a black man raped, assaulted, talked to or glanced at them. The Tulsa race massacre, the destruction of Black Wall Street, was spurred by an incident between a white female elevator operator and a black man. As the Oklahoma Historical Society points out, the most common explanation is that he stepped on her toe. As many as 300 people were killed because of it. The torture and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, a lynching actually, occurred because a white woman said that he "grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her". This practice, this exercise in racial extremism has been dragged into the modern era through the weaponizing of 9-1-1, often by white women, to invoke the power and force of the police who they are fully aware are hostile to black men. This was again evident when a white woman in New York's Central Park told a black man, a bird-watcher, that she was going to call the police and tell them that he was threatening her life."

Lndnmummy · 05/09/2024 22:03

Hoppinggreen · 05/09/2024 15:19

Yep, it was certainly the middle class white women leading the recent racist riots, we were right there at the front shouting "save are kids" and throwing bins at Policemen 🙄

Are you denying the fact that white middle class women weaponising tears and fear cause harm to black
men and black boys?

The first time my black son was targeted by such a woman (aka a karen), he was 4. 4!!! Read that again.

RhaenysRocks · 05/09/2024 22:04

@Lndnmummy nope, not whattaboutery. It's perfectly possible to be upset about more than one thing. In the UK, now, the term is used against women and it's ok to be pissed about that and label it misogyny, which is what the context of this thread was. The historical roots of the term and the racial injustice in America is a whole other thing that we can ALSO be horrified and upset about but that's not the context of THIS discussion because whether some posters like it or not the term has evolved and is used differently.

Lndnmummy · 05/09/2024 22:04

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 21:59

For any remaining ignoramuses out there, the power of the Karen:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/opinion/racism-white-women.html

How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror

"We often like to make white supremacy a testosterone-fueled masculine expression, but it is just as likely to wear heels as a hood. Indeed, untold numbers of lynchings were executed because white women had claimed that a black man raped, assaulted, talked to or glanced at them. The Tulsa race massacre, the destruction of Black Wall Street, was spurred by an incident between a white female elevator operator and a black man. As the Oklahoma Historical Society points out, the most common explanation is that he stepped on her toe. As many as 300 people were killed because of it. The torture and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, a lynching actually, occurred because a white woman said that he "grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her". This practice, this exercise in racial extremism has been dragged into the modern era through the weaponizing of 9-1-1, often by white women, to invoke the power and force of the police who they are fully aware are hostile to black men. This was again evident when a white woman in New York's Central Park told a black man, a bird-watcher, that she was going to call the police and tell them that he was threatening her life."

Thank you for having the strength 🙏

SnakesAndArrows · 05/09/2024 22:08

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 21:22

It shows the white supremacist entity the Karen was formed in.

The Karen (racist american woman) didn't just appear out of thin air.

You have to understand the culture it was created in. The white woman was the highest standard of woman in a white supremacist entity that is america. She was precious. If a black person so much as looked at her he could be in serious trouble. Race riots, lynchings etc. were instigated by the Karen, while the man was the muscle who carried out the acts.

Are all Karens racist?

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 22:15

Lndnmummy · 05/09/2024 21:57

Heartbreaking. What gets me every single time on these threads is the aghast indignation at the term Karen, rather than the behaviour of the people being labelled the term. It is infuriating and heart breaking in equal measure.

Endless whataboutery, page after page after page.

White privilege.

I don't think those arguing against what I'm saying are doing so due to race.

I'm white (not that that's relevant, as race is social construct...big deal I have lighter pigment as my nearest ancestors were in northern Europe while my furthest ancestors were in Africa), but I think they are trivialising the term. The Karen is not about "Jill from Essex", the Karen is an individual who has used her white privilege to inflict harm on other people.

I've yet to be called a Karen, but if I ever do I will shrug my shoulders as I know what that term means. It's a term not related to me. I'd think about those who coined the term and the hell they went through.

RhaenysRocks · 05/09/2024 22:23

And that's lovely but by not challenging it you are allowing the person who has used it (who likely has absolutely no knowledge of the racial aspects and IS using it to undermine women) to be unchallenged in their misogyny. If he called you an arrogant entitled bitch would you also walk away? Because that's what he's saying. .he's just using current UK slang to do it.

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 22:24

SnakesAndArrows · 05/09/2024 22:08

Are all Karens racist?

Yes of course.

It is the latest moniker for a racist american woman.

Lizzie67384 · 05/09/2024 22:25

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 22:24

Yes of course.

It is the latest moniker for a racist american woman.

It’s not in the UK though, I’d wager most young people here have NO idea of its origins and just use it as a sexist, misogynistic insult

SnakesAndArrows · 05/09/2024 22:26

Eldrick47s · 05/09/2024 22:24

Yes of course.

It is the latest moniker for a racist american woman.

My friend Karen, she’s a racist is she?