- Are you filming me?
- [Man] Okay Karen.
- Hi, my name is Karen.
- Hi, I'm Karen.
- [Both] My name is Karen.
- Or as my mother calls me Karen.
And yes, I have definitely seen the Karen meme.
- And I'm not a Karen - I'm a Karen
but I'm not a Karen.
- What's a Karen?
Why is it everywhere and where did it come from?
This is the origin of the Karen meme.
(upbeat music)
When most people think of Karen, an image of a white lady
with Kate Gosselin's 2008 haircut comes to mind.
- The meme has evolved from someone entitled,
who has a specific style haircut,
and always wants to speak to the manager,
if they don't get their way,
do something a little more complex in higher stakes.
- Karen has come to represent a white entitled woman,
who is capable of causing harm to people around her,
in particular people of color.
- So they tried to walk right here
and she blocked them.
- Get access to the river! - Yell at me some more.
Okay Karen.
- A hysterical middle-aged woman,
with a complete lack of awareness of her privilege.
Why is Karen middle-aged?
Well, the name's fallen in popularity as of 2018
it sits at 637th for US girl names.
Karen was consistently in the top 10 lists
in the 50's and 60's.
So today, there are a lot of Karens
in their 50's and 60's.
- Growing up, it seemed like all
of my friends' parents were named Karen.
My teacher was named Karen.
I didn't know a single other Karen my age.
- But why aren't we dissing other names of that era?
Why not Linda or Susan?
There are some theories on why
this name in particular, became the inspiration
for this character archetype.
Some editors point to Ray Liotta yelling at Karen
in the 1990 film, GoodFellas. Karen, where's the stuff
that I left Karen?
- As the inspiration for the idea
that Karens are infuriating.
- Karen!
- I feel like Dane Cook made Karen a thing, 15 years ago.
- Every group has a Karen, and she's always a bag of douche.
(laughing)
- A clearer connection to the modern day meaning of Karen,
can be found in the 2004 film, Mean Girls.
When the airy Karen asks.
- So you're from Africa.
Why are you white?
- Oh my God Karen, you can't just ask people
Why they're white!
- It's also possible Mean Girl's writer Tina Fey,
used the name Karen because it was already
in the public consciousness.
It's really a what came first chicken or the egg situation.
But long before the name Karen became a pejorative,
the character type had long been recognized by another name.
According to Georgia tech Professor Andre Brock,
during the time of slavery,
black people used to refer to a white woman
exerting undue power over them as a Miss Ann.
Even after slavery, there was a general fear
among the black community,
that a white woman could easily make a false
or exaggerated accusation,
and send a lynch mob after any particular black man.
Given the black community's history
of interacting with the stereotype,
and the popularity of the name Karen,
in a certain age bracket,
black people started commonly referring
to these types of women as Karens.
Although the timeline is nebulous,
the rise of smartphones and social media,
further spread and popularized the term.
- Has anyone ever called me a Karen pejoratively?
I don't think so, but I really wouldn't know.
- I think I don't fall
into the middle age entitled white lady category
that Karens are usually associated with.
And so no one's ever called me Karen pejoratively.
- Toward the end of the past decade,
people were filming and posting more incidents with Karens.
It was common for each woman perpetuating
the incident, to get around a alliterative nickname.
For example in 2018, there was Permit Patty.
A woman who called the cops on an eight year old black girl,
selling water without a permit.
There was BBQ Becky.
- This lady right here wants to sit here and call the police
on them for having a barbecue at the lake
as if this is not normal.
- She's like, "It's against the law.
I'm gonna home and call the police."
So I'm like, "You know what, do what you want to do."
I've been here 42 something years.
I know where I can and cannot barbecue.
- I was walking by and I saw her harassing him and stopped.
And he's done nothing.
He's been sitting there, chilling the entire time.
- He was really aggressive towards him.
- It's nothing to do with their race.
- It seems like a new Jim Crow going on.
Because for some reason every time I see it,
black people ones targeted.
- Karen incidents often include,
a Karen unnecessarily contacting the police.
- In like middle school,
my friends and I were all over at my buddy's place
for his birthday.
We all had like these airsoft guns,
but they have like fat orange tips on them.
Short, tiny plastic pellets or whatever,
like super harmless.
Halfway through the party, this woman comes out
and like starts freaking out about all these kids.
And she called the cops.
It was like really, really scary
'cause I was the only black kid.
Definitely could've ended a lot differently,
a lot differently.
You know like you see a Karen on the internet
like wilding out and you don't really think twice,
or you laugh about it.
But like in other people's cases,
like they're getting the police called on them.
And then those situations escalate,
and then people are getting hurt.
- A Karen is a person who calls the police
because quote on quote, you make them feel unsafe.
Even though you're not doing anything.
A Karen calls your manager,
just because you're not giving them what they want.
They're using their identity, their privilege,
to their advantage.
- Often you'll see a Karen
harassing service industry workers.
- So I used to work at a coffee shop.
So we were super busy,
I was the only one there.
- So I used to work as a host
for a very popular restaurant called Sugarfish.
- And this one woman, she wanted to order a sandwich
and she asked me what type of bread it came on.
A sourdough type of bread.
She goes, "Oh, can I see it?"
If there was any other day, I would love to do that for you.
But there was a line out the door right now.
And she was like, "Well, I don't wanna order it
if I don't know what it looks like."
Here comes Karen, and she's like, "Hi there
I have a reservation for six.
I talked to your manager on the phone.
He said that you all could sit and spread away."
But you were talking to me on the phone.
You're trying to pull one on me
is what you're trying to say.
- I went on to the person behind her
started taking their order,
and she was like, no.
Like, I don't want anyone else to order it before me.
It's my turn right now.
And she starts yelling.
She's like, "This is horrible,
I hate this establishment."
And then she gets like a bunch of plates,
she just smashes it down.
And like the plates fall all over the place,
You know, there's food on the ground.
Why would you do that?
Who gives you the rights to think
that you have power over somebody else?
- Why I would call that woman a Karen,
is because she kind of felt entitled.
Like oh, everyone else can wait for me.
it's my turn now,
I'm the star of the show.
- So I supported the Karen memes,
because it sheds light of kind of like the privilege
these people get,
This white woman, she can never do anything wrong.
You know, she's always correct.
- I think it's really important that we talk about it,
because back then we didn't have Karens
because no one was recording any incidents.
No one was recording any races.
When no one was recording anything.
So I feel like recording a Karen incident,
does bring light to racism.
- The Karen meme graduated from popularity
to virality with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic,
and the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter
Civil Rights Movement.
Google trends for Karen from the last 12 months,
show an increase in searches,
starting around middle to late March.
The Corona virus version of the Karen meme,
became particularly poignant in the hellscape of 2020.
- Where'd you get that from?
- This Karen, refuses to wear a face mask in public
or in stores, harasses service industry workers,
and spreads COVID-19 conspiracy theories.
- Give me a manager.
- I am the manager. - She is the manager.
- Ma'am, you need to leave
- I am rich.
Something you've never seen. - Bye Karen.
The most Karenny Karen however, is Amy Cooper.
A New Yorker who called the cops,
and said a black bird watcher, was threatening her life
after he asked her, to put her dog on a leash.
That same day, George Floyd was killed
by Minneapolis police officers.
People began linking the racism of Karen's like Amy Cooper,
to wider and more lethal instances
of systemic racism and police brutality.
But what do Karens really think
about their name being used as a pejorative?
- I was a little upset, a part of me really did think
about who could I complain to about this meme?
- When the Karen meme started gaining traction,
I was horrified obviously
because the name has a negative connotation to it now.
And I didn't really want people to associate me.
- Not liking the Karen meme,
is something a Karen and a Karen would do.
- When I first encountered the Karen meme,
honestly I didn't even connect it to myself,
because I know that I'm not like that.
- You know I have a duty as a good Karen,
to prove that there are exceptions to the name.
And it doesn't really bother me anymore
because I know the meme isn't attacking my name per se,
but rather it's labeling a certain type of person.
- We have a knock for turning our hurt to humor,
but my only concern would be that the Karen meme
just stays a meme.
And it doesn't evolve and it doesn't move towards
any sort of action.
- In 2019, Oregon passed a bill
to punish racist 911 callers.
Attempting to put a stop to people
like the Central Park Karen.
In July, a San Francisco supervisor introduced
the Caren Act.
Which stands for,
Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-emergencies.
Hopefully with some reflection and change,
this type of racist person can be a thing of the past.
Let's all work together and kill Karen.
I mean, not the person.
The need for the meme.
Kill the need for the meme.
The Karen in quotes.
You get it, you get it.
I'll stop, now.