“It has always been a term of endearment.” She said she’s considering changing her name to “KC” after she and her fiancé eventually wed. “It was very upsetting, but I would sacrifice my name for the visibility and awareness that incident generated,” said Ms. Karen Chang, a Bay Area resident who works in business management, had shrugged off early memes, but then the Amy Cooper video changed everything for her. If it’s the only thing I have to be upset about in this world, then good for me.” There are people losing their lives every day. “I remember hearing about names like Becky and thinking, ‘What if this was my name, how would it feel?’” said Karen Scholl, a 47-year-old writer in Columbus, Ohio, with whom I worked at a college newspaper more than 20 years ago. San Francisco Karen called the police on a Filipino man stenciling “Black Lives Matter” on his own property.Īnd, of course, the Queen of Karens - Amy Cooper, also known as Central Park Karen - threatened and fabricated accusations against a Black man after he politely asked her to put her dog on a leash, as park rules stated.įor some women with the name Karen, these videos have made them outraged, of course, but also, at times, ashamed. Kroger Karen, named after the supermarket chain, blocked an African-American mother’s car so the woman couldn’t leave the market’s parking lot. Whitefish Karen (named for her town in Montana) coughed on a couple when they called her out for not wearing a mask inside a grocery store. In fact, many news reports don’t even bother to use a woman’s actual given name. And while this archetype had previously been called “ Permit Patty” or “ BBQ Becky,” “Karen” has stuck. Now, the moniker has most recently morphed into a symbol of racism and white privilege.Ī “Karen” now roams restaurants and stores, often without a mask during this coronavirus era, spewing venom and calling the authorities to tattle, usually on people of color and often putting them in dangerous situations. In 2020, Karen is no longer “an easy name.” Once popular for girls born in the 1960s, it then became a pseudonym for a middle-aged busybody with a blond choppy bob who asks to speak to the manager. Ask a woman named Karen what she used to think of her name and you’ll hear phrases like “generic,” “perfectly serviceable” and “an easy name.”
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