On Marching Karens and Metaphorical Black Women

Abstract

In 2021, the New York Times published “March of the Karens,” an article that described a figure who symbolizes all that is wrong with contemporary feminism: Karen. Ligaya Mishan describes Karen as an “interfering, hectoring white woman, the self-appointed hall monitor unloosed on the world, so assured of her status in society that she doesn’t hesitate to summon the authorities . . . for the most trivial and often wholly imaginary transgressions.” In a moment when leftist calls for abolishing and defunding the police proliferate, Karen enacts her power by enlisting and supporting the police in her violent anti-Black efforts all the while disavowing the power she wields. Karen calls the police on Black people engaged in the most ordinary of activities, including Black children selling water, Black people stenciling on their own homes, Black families barbecuing, and Black people bird-watching.