In the world of today, being labeled a "Karen" is one of the worst possible labels you can get. For the women who actually have the name Karen, I apologize for your name being turned into a pejorative slang term.
Dr. Phil's YouTube channel recently shared a video of a discussion on his show about the slang term Karen. The description states, “The term ‘Karen’, a pejorative slang term for an alleged obnoxious, angry, entitled, and perceived racist white woman who uses inherent privilege to get their way or police other people’s behaviors.”
In this video, Dr. Phil has a woman named Ambrosia on his show, who claims she was falsely accused of being a Karen when she refused to wear a mask and said that a UPS store was her place of residence since she had packages delivered there. A video was taken of the whole incident and went viral.
Along with Ambrosia, Dr. Phil also talked to Regina Jackson and Saira Rao, cofounders of Race2Dinner and coauthors of White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How To Do Better. They are also joined, via Zoom, by Toni, an educator who says she is tired of the Karen trend and that it is wrong to label all white women as racists.
Toni says, “I’m sorry, I’m not racist. I do not have a racist bone in my body. Just because I was born with white skin the same way you were born with black skin or dark-colored skin, doesn’t make me not like people of a different race.”
The conversation then is opened to the audience, and a woman says, “I’m just really struck first of all by the fact that the two white women that are involved in this conversation value that we should value your fragility over the topic of race over the comfort and safety of people of color.”
The audience member's statement got followed by a lot of applause and approving head nods by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao. The audience member then follows up her statement with, “I’m just sick of the two white women on this stage refusing to acknowledge it and holding women of color accountable for your own ignorance.”
To see the whole incident unfold, click the video!
