>> I just said $0.49. >> What'd you say?
>> You heard me. I asked you what country you're from.
>> Here we go again with this stuff. >> That says exactly what it
says up there. >> What'd you say?
>> Doesn't say that. >> Did you say what country I'm from?
>> Yeah. >> Karen with the ear muffs
doubles down at the frontline worker. >> I said that you can't understand
that English written right up there. >> Miss, I have lived in America just
like you do. Now get out my store. >> Major, major props to the cashier.
This is a really tough situation to be in. >> Boo.
>> Get out my store. >> Get out my store.
>> Boo. >>
And then the chorus of boos start behind her. >> Boo, boo, you're the problem.
>> Yeah. >> Boo.
>> You better guess again pal. >> It's $1.20.
>> She gets called out, more boos ensue. >> Boo, you're white trash,
white trash, white trash. >> You're not allowed to be barefooted.
>> Sure we are. >> Then once she's
got nothing left, she calls out those behind the camera for being barefoot.
At least they're not racist scum holding back society, ma'am.
The backstory, per the uploader, goes like this. The clerk told this woman
that her coupon expired and that she could download the app for discounts.
She didn't understand what he was saying or didn't know what an app was,
and she turned frustrated and racist. The rise in hatred of frontline employees throughout
the pandemic has led to confrontations that more times than not turn racist.
It is uncalled for. And these instances, it seems, just keep happening.
>> There is an African American man. I'm in Central Park, he's recording
me and threatened myself and my dog. >> It fueled already heightened
racial tensions in the US. >> Because the Karens of the
world have the same theme for their bigoted tirades.
>> Black lives don't matter at all to me. >> And their inspiration for said tirades.
>> All lives matter. >> America is not
a racist country. >> So you won't say Black Lives Matter?
>> John, I really believe that all lives matter. >> Republicanism, mainly Republicanism. Swiftly,
and with perhaps utter finality, the Karen has become a searing symbol of white supremacy
and a stand-in for 2020s intense, racially charged debate over human rights, wrote Vox.
Jada Calvin, the founder of the Facebook group, Karens Gone Wild,
put it like this. The Karen meme is a great meme that explains how Karens use harassment against
people of color as a way to justify their racism. In a piece titled, Why are Karens so angry,
columnist Quintin Fottrell wrote, Karen or Ken videos shed light on racism and ongoing
harassment of people of color by white people, sometimes even their neighbors.
And this othering of people of color is another surreptitious way of attempting to
maintain a predominantly white socio-economic power structure. And effectively erecting
an invisible white picket fence around their own neighborhoods. These incidents,
others say, merely reveal a more explicit form or racism that permeates neighborhoods,
workplaces, colleges, and businesses across America.
They see it as a generational transfer of white economic power that can express itself
as an unfriendly neighborhood committee or a boss that overlooks a person of color for promotion.
But the race based incidents that have gone viral
allow other white people to see what it looks like when racism and white privilege run wild.
Which is an everyday experience for most people of color, social commentators say.