There are two types of people who want us to stop using “Karen” as a pejorative term for racist and/or entitled white women. The first is, well, racist and/or entitled white women who complain that it’s unfair that “Karen” is used in such a way (with bonus white tears if their name is actually Karen) despite said complaints being pretty onbrand for what a Karen is.
The second type is the Black progressive who thinks “Karen” is too cutesy a term for racists who harass Black people either by being generally nosy, calling the police, using racial slurs or all of the above. The latter type has a point. Not such a good point that I’m going to stop using the term—first, because I still think it’s hilarious, and second: If Karens find “Karen” to be so incendiary, how cutesy could it be?—but a fair point nonetheless. In Bayonne, N.J., one Karen proved just how fair that point is when a Black woman recorded a video of the elderly white woman repeatedly (and I’m talking maybe a dozen times) calling her a “nigger bitch.” Now, a New Jersey elected official is calling for an investigation into the racist harassment.
TMZ reports that the video footage of the altercation was posted to Facebook by the Black woman, Tameka Bordeaux, who was being harassed by the possibly intoxicated, definitely bigoted Karen in question.
“The racism I had to endure walking to the store,” Bordeaux captioned the video. “2021 started with a bang. Thank god for my neighbors.”
This is one of those videos that is difficult to transcribe because I just don’t speak fluent drunken Nazi, but what can be seen clearly is the white woman taunting Bordeaux while calling her, over and over again, a “nigger bitch.” And because even Karens of the Klan-ish variety aren’t above the level of caucasity that allows them to play the victim, the woman appeared to be claiming that it was she who was being harassed—despite the fact that she can be seen following Bordeaux down the street while continuing her n-word-laced tirade.
“I don’t know what I did to you,” the Karen who looks like every old white woman cartoon villain ever can be heard saying. “I’m just walking out of my apartment, talking to the mailman. You nasty fucking nigger bitch, what did I do to you?” It’s clear that racists—including this Great Value version of Tony Soprano’s mother—never see their use of racial slurs and racial harassment as acts of violence, but that’s exactly what it is. This crazy woman is just lucky Bordeaux didn’t have a can of Twisted Tea handy.
Eventually, a male neighbor, who Bordeaux was likely referring to in her caption, confronted Nazi-from-the-block asking her “Why do you keep following her?” and telling her “Go that way.”
After that, the woman continued to claim she was the one being bothered and continued to call Bordeaux either “Black bitch” or “nigger bitch.”
Anyway, the whole episode of Old-Ass Karens Gone Wild caught the attention of a Black woman who also happens to be an N.J. assemblywoman, and she is now calling for the incident to be investigated.
From TMZ:
The video caught the attention of NJ Assemblywoman Angela McKnight who is calling for an investigation into the incident. McKnight said, “This behavior is becoming so common now that we simply refer to these racist people as ‘Karen’ and let it go. I can’t just do that.”
She added, “This matter needs to be investigated for sure but regardless of the outcome of the investigation, one thing for certain is that Tameka was incredibly wronged today.”
McKnight was also alarmed at the number of people defending the behavior. As she put it, “To read the comments of some white people now making an excuse or defense for this behavior is alarming and gets us to the real problem of this systemic situation.”
Yeah sis, never read the comments.