Joshua: Hello, everyone, I am Joshua Halsband, the director and lead instructor at ESL For All, and this is my cohost, my wife, Tomomi.
Tomomi: Hello, everyone, we hope that you are all healthy and look forward to Labor Day Weekend and the start of a new academic year.
Joshua: This summer has been most unusual. We’ve had the pandemic, storms, and the strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Tomomi: A new slang has emerged in connection with the BLM movement: Karen.
Joshua: And, a commonly used expression “to face a backlash” naturally fits well with “Karen”.
Tomomi: Can you figure out what “Karen” and “to face a backlash” mean? Listen to Josh and I discuss an event from the summer that illustrates what these terms mean.
Joshua: Did you hear about the white woman in Central Park, New York City, who was walking her dog without its leash? Mr. Cooper, a Black man, was birdwatching when he spotted the woman and her dog.
Tomomi: Yes, I remember that. He politely reminded her that dogs must be leashed when out in the park. And, she started screaming at him. She took out her cell phone and threatened to call the police because he was threatening her.
Joshua: Which was completely untrue. He was calm and polite, but this woman freaked out and tried to accuse him of being violent towards her.
Tomomi: We know she was being racist because she said, “I’m going to call the cops and tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
Joshua: Right, and it is at this moment that we can see and hear evidence of her racism.
Tomomi: But, her name is not Karen, why did she get nicknamed “Karen” on social media?
Joshua: “Karen” was a popular name for white women in the 1960s. It also has become connected to white women who think that they have the right to behave as if they own the world.
Tomomi: So, it applies to rich white women?
Joshua: Not exactly, it is associated with white women who think that they do not have to follow social rules such as wearing a mask.
Tomomi: Is that a new term?
Joshua: Not exactly, it started out years ago referring to the type of woman who asks to speak to the manager. For example, a woman thinks that she has been mistreated by a store employee or gotten a bad haircut. Listeners, I got this from a New York Times article. You can follow the link if you read the transcript. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/style/karen-name-meme-history.html
Tomomi: So, how does this connect to privileged white women and racism?
Joshua: We have to go back in time to when Americans had African American slaves. The myth, the story, was that white women were pure, innocent, weak, and moral. While Black men were viewed as a physical and sexual threat to white women. This lie was perpetuated for hundred of years: Black men wanted to sexually assault white women. Recently, some Karens, privileged white women who want to control their environment, have started using this historical deception to accuse Black men of violence, even when there was no violence.
Tomomi: Why are these Karens doing this?
Joshua: Well, in some cases, it is because the Black men were doing something that the women did not like. For example, there was a Black man painting a Black Lives Matter mural in front of his own house. But, two of his white women neighbors, who knew him, acted as if he were vandalizing someone’s property. They pretended that they did not know he lives there.
Tomomi: That’s terrible. What about the Central Park Karen?
Joshua: It appears that the Karen, in this case, did not like being reprimanded by a Black man. She did not like being reminded by a Black man that she should have had her dog on a leash.
Tomomi: Basically, she thought she was superior to him because she is white and he is Black.
Joshua: Exactly. And, this is a classic example of racism and white supremacy.
Tomomi: Was there any backlash against the Central Park Karen?
Joshua: As a matter of fact, yes. She has faced a backlash. Her dog was temporarily taken away from her. More widely, there have been some new laws initiated that make it a criminal offense to call the police for incidents like this. This may slow down some of the false phone calls, but it does not change the fact that in the US, there is a troubling increase in racism and white supremacy.
Tomomi: That’s right. Only when we all agree to treat each other equally and with respect will we be able to reduce the Karen-related incidents in this country.
Joshua: In the meantime, the best backlash against these incidents appears to be social activists posting videos on Instagram and other social media platforms. Listeners, for more examples of Karens, you can search hashtag Karen (#Karen) on social media.
Tomomi: Listeners, this podcast and blog is a bit longer than what we usually produce. We’d really appreciate your feedback on the content and the length.
