What's In A 'Karen'?

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Karen" has become cultural shorthand for a white woman who wields her race as a cudgel. And look, we all love to hate a good Karen. But where did this archetype come from? What will the next iteration of Karen be? And what are we missing by focusing on the Karens of the world?

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jean Demby.
0:01.0	I'm Shireen Marisol Maraji and this is Code Switch.
0:05.0	From NPR.
0:06.0	Tonight a woman from New York City who was seen on camera angrily confronting a black man
0:10.8	in Central Park was it with a criminal charge today that could send her to jail for up to
0:15.1	a year.
0:16.1	Here's CBS's error.
0:17.1	Alright, so y'all remember Amy Cooper from a few weeks ago.
0:20.2	It was only a few weeks ago.
0:21.8	How could we forget?
0:22.8	Oh yeah.
0:23.8	If you didn't forget, she was a white woman who called the police on a black man in New
0:27.2	York City Central Park.
0:29.0	She said that black man was threatening her.
0:32.0	He was not.
0:33.0	He was asking her to put a leash on her dog and as we all should know by now calling
0:37.5	the cops on a black man can have serious, sometimes deadly consequences.
0:43.2	Recognizing just how big a problem this can be, Shaman Walton, a member of the San Francisco
0:47.8	Board of Supervisors, introduced a new ordinance that would find people who called the police
0:54.4	for help in situations like Amy Cooper.
0:57.4	At this point because it's leading to death, if you've been harmed, there should be some
1:02.2	type of fight for using resources and leading to the harm of people from these phone calls.
	...

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