The Karen

Decoder Ring

Slate Podcasts

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2020

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ 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. Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and bonus episodes of shows like Dear Prudence and Slow Burn. Sign up now to listen and support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast contains explicit language.
0:08.8	So just to start, can you tell me your name?
0:10.9	Well, my name is unfortunately Karen.
0:16.8	Karen.
0:16.8	Karen Rutner is an artist manager in the music business.
0:20.0	At the end of May, after I saw a pertinent tweet of hers, I reached out simply because her name is Karen.
0:26.3	When did it start to become clear to you that there was something going on with the name Karen.
0:36.0	I first started noticing it with that hideous haircut with the chunky highlights and people
0:41.6	you know saying oh there's there's Karen demanding to speak to a
0:44.5	manager. I want to see your manager of whoever's in charge and I want the number of
0:48.5	your corporate office and I want that young lady's name. When it first started, it was pretty innocuous.
0:54.2	You know, it was like, you know, calling guys
0:57.2	that punched the wall, Cheats or something like that.
1:00.6	And then, I don't know, it was like a week or two ago I started seeing on Twitter the name
1:07.0	Karen Trending, Karen being code word for racist white women.
1:12.0	There is an African American man.
1:13.7	I am in several work.
1:15.0	He is recording me and threatened myself and my dog.
1:18.0	I do not want to be in a category with a cycle like that.
1:22.4	I would say at least 10 different people have said something to me.
1:26.7	I was thinking of you today or like, how are you feeling about this?
1:31.1	And it bugs you. Of course it bugs me. It's embarrassing. This is Decodering, a show about cracking cultural mysteries.
	...

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