The Karen
Decoder Ring
Slate Podcasts
4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 July 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Karen, a white woman who surveys, inconveniences, and terrorizes, service workers and people of color is a relatively new term in the culture, but her character type has been with us for centuries. In this episode of Decoder Ring we explore the history of this type, from the code-names used during enslavement, to the contemporary menace of the COVID age.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast contains explicit language. |
| 0:08.5 | So just to start, can you tell me your name? |
| 0:11.1 | Well, my name is, unfortunately, Karen. |
| 0:16.7 | Karen Rutner is an artist manager in the music business. |
| 0:20.2 | At the end of May, after I saw a pertinent tweet of hers, |
| 0:23.0 | I reached out simply because her name is Karen. |
| 0:26.5 | When did it start to become clear to you that there was something going on with the name, Karen? |
| 0:35.9 | I first started noticing it with that hideous haircut |
| 0:39.6 | with the chunky highlights and people, you know, saying, |
| 0:42.0 | oh, there's Karen demanding to speak to a manager. |
| 0:45.2 | I want to see your manager, whoever's in charge, |
| 0:47.4 | and I want the number of your corporate office, |
| 0:49.6 | and I want that young lady's name. |
| 0:51.6 | When it first started, it was pretty innocuous. |
| 0:54.1 | You know, it was pretty innocuous. |
| 0:54.2 | You know, it was like, you know, calling guys that punched the wall, Chet or something like that. |
| 1:00.3 | And then about, I don't know, it was like a week or two ago I started seeing on Twitter the name Karen trending, Karen being code word for racist white women. |
| 1:11.6 | There is an African-American man. |
| 1:13.6 | I am in second heart. |
| 1:14.6 | He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog. |
| 1:17.6 | I do not want to be in a category with a psycho like that. |
| 1:21.6 | I would say at least 10 different people have said something to me. |
... |
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