Everyday Racism Instagram on "Karen"

[Mizzler]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEpA-dlMjj_/?hl=en

I've been trying to learn more about race and racism since the BLM protest movement appeared and I'd been following this Instagram account as a way of trying to understand more about the issues involved.

This post has really troubled me though and I'm struggling to articulate why. I think it's because whilst I completely accept that black and minority ethnic women suffer great disadvantages in the UK, I'm very uncomfortable with the "Karen" meme. It strikes me as deeply misogynistic. In this post, they make reference to a "Karen" asking to speak to a manager as a way of asserting authority. Isn't that what women SHOULD be doing? Being assertive isn't the same as being aggressive, even if women behaving assertively is perceived as aggression by a patriarchal society.

I feel like I'm rambling here and I'd be very grateful for other people's thoughts.

[Novelusername]

I'd imagine that older women do complain more than younger women, because they're tired of patriarchy's shit that has worn them down for so many years and have finally found the confidence to stand up for themselves and their rights. This is a way of slapping them back down again. I can count the times I've complained in shops on one hand, but I complained about a staff member in a shop about 2 years ago because he was really rude to me simply for being in the shop half-an-hour before closing time. I felt really self-conscious complaining about him, because I was aware that they'd think of me as a Karen, but this guy was rude in a way I thought he wouldn't be to anyone who wasn't a lone woman - he thought he could get away with it and was verging on being abusive - and just browsing for some clothes and minding my own business, I was really pissed off and a bit shaken up. To think that me not standing for sexist abusive behaviour would then put me in the same bracket as someone who is an anti-vaxxer and an entitled racist (what do these even have to do with each other?!) is ridiculous, but this is what the Karen meme aims to do, tar us all with the same brush for daring to open our mouths. It would surely be more powerful to name the offending behaviours - eg. racism, illogical thinking, being demanding - rather than resorting to name calling, so this shows me the Karen meme is really only about hating older women and silencing them.

[Wanderingstars4238]

They want to make older women look bad so no one listens to them. Older women understand men better than younger women do and are more likely to be feminist.