Today, the name “Karen” represents a faction of the population, made up of white women specifically, that is threatened by the prospect of losing its place atop a toxic, racial hierarchy rooted in the original sin of slavery. The “Karen” holds an ugly place in history – particularly since the 2017 confession by Carolyn Bryant as an instigator of the murder of Emmett Till. As part of our 1619 Project series, we thought it would be interesting to explore the phenomenon’s history, and its recent manifestation in popular culture as a means to better understand that history. (With apologies to our readers who happen to be named “Karen.”)
Videos
They Were Her Property Prof. Jones-Roger’s lecture on her book of the same name.
In They Were Her Property, Jones-Roger writes that women typically inherited more slaves than land, and that enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth.
#NotAllKarens: The Weaponization of White-womeness Against People of Color
Ellipsis Institute’s lunchtime conversation about the current movement for Black lives, popular culture has donned these white women with the title of “Karen” in an attempt to acknowledge the role white women like Bryant play as an accomplice to state sanctioned violence.
Urgency of Intersectionality
Now more than ever, it’s important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias — and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term “intersectionality” to describe this phenomenon.
Podcasts
Code Switch: What’s in a “Karen?”
These Karens did not spring full-grown from the ether. Instead, they are the latest link in an evolutionary chain of white women that goes back at least a couple of centuries.
Slate’s DECODER Rise of The Karen.
How “Karen” being code word for racist white women.
Articles
- What exactly is a ‘Karen’ and where did the meme come from?
- The Mythology of Karen: The meme is so powerful because of the awkward status of white women.
- Stop Calling the Police on Black People
- My So-Called Karen Life
- White spaces, white privilege, and white fear: Negrophobia still contaminates America
- How the ‘Karen Meme’ Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood
- ‘I Refuse to Listen to White Women Cry’
- Karen Is Being Used by White Women — Here’s Why They Need to Stop
- Is the ‘Karen’ meme sexist? Maybe, but it’s also apt
- What is intersectional feminism? A look at the term you may be hearing a lot
- What’s Intersectionality? Let These Scholars Explain the Theory and Its History
Books
Feminism: Reinventing the F-Word (EBOOK)
by Nadia Abushanab Higgins
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot (EBOOK)
by Mikki Kendall
Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday
by Angela Y. Davis
Intersectionality
by Patricia Hill Collins
Reclaiming our space : how Black feminists are changing the world from the tweets to the streets
by Feminista Jones
Intersection allies : we make room for all
by Chelsea Johnson
This is disingenuous hate-speech against white women. DISGUSTING.