Its time to retire the meme.
Suddenly I felt my entire car shake.
I honked instantly to alert the driver that they were hitting my car.
Even the smallest fender benderstend to create hostile environments, and I wanted to avoid any kind of aggression.
Thats when a rushed, young white woman finally stepped out of the vehicle.
Excuse me, you know you hit my car, right?
She looked at me with surprise and responded with something like What are you talking about?
and continued to pay the parking meter.
Keeping my tone at a normal volume, I said, You heard me honking multiple times, right?
You felt your car hit something, right?
Surely, you were aware of that.
The name does not discriminate by age, beauty, or political status.
As people started passing by and observing our conversation, the woman denied the accident totally.
She continued to say I was lying, prompting me to show her the damage itself.
Her demeanor changed entirely.
She claimed I was overreacting and that she would call the police.
Right then my boyfriend, who is white, started to approach the car from across the street.
Shock, embarrassment, and anger filled her face when he responded, Thats our car that you hit.
Do you have insurance?
Maybe she figured my boyfriend was a bystander and unrelated to me because hes a white man.
Maybe she assumed he would take her side and believe her lies, viewing her as a victim.
Personally, I hate the termKaren.
Besides white women, no other subgroup has been afforded a harmless name to describe their harmful behavior.
Not Karens, not Pamelas, not Susans.
In meme-ifying the name, people have normalized this behavior instead of working to dismantle it.
What most progressive and liberal white women should recognize is that Karen-like characteristicscan be ingrained in them too.
Luckily, my boyfriend and I were able to disengage with her quickly.
She wasnt worth the anger.
Copyright 2023 by Brianna Holt.
This article was originally published onMarch 15, 2023
