Hew Johns wrote:"Karen" is a stereotype of (implicitly white mid-aged) women acting with an unentitled sense of privilege, often but not necessarily in racially charged situations. Like any stereotype, it has some basis, but can be used as a generic (implicitly sexist) insult. And it stigmatizes a perfectly good female (yes Condi or Armenian) name.
Mac's list of incidents, however odious, rarely fit the "Karen" meme.
I respectfully disagree, Hew. Presuming any black woman around you is part of “the help” (or, worse yet, a criminal) and that you can order them around or call the authorities on them is indeed racist entitlement, in its most basic sense.
And no, it wouldn’t be if it were just a simple mistake. But in all of these cases, the Karen in question had the info she needed to say “Sorry, my mistake” and she wouldn’t back down. Perhaps the clearest example is my niece, who informed Karen that she didn’t work at the store, only to hear in return the classic line “I’m going to talk to the manager about your attitude”.
It’d be hard to get more “Karen” than these examples, in fact. How is accusing my mother-in-law of being a kidnapper and threatening to call the police in any way different from Karen calling the cops on black people bird watching or barbecuing?