Karens: The Hidden Sheroes of White Supremacy and their Evolution
The once-common and simple name of Karen, has now become a social media stable used to comically sum up and easily identify the nasty, privileged actions of white women who make it their duty to illustrate their regal authority while reinforcing black subservience. Through dramatized 911 calls and theatrical shrieks of threat, we watch in horror as white women feel emboldened enough to police children water stands, family barbecues and the bird watching activities of black peoples. They are the powerful heroes of white patriarchy, and the only group of people who can terrorize a community without lifting a finger.
For many of us, witnessing these consistent, collective demonstrations of personal prejudice at the potential expense of black safety — causes us to scratch our heads as we try and synthesize exactly how “Karen” has become the poster child for white privilege.
But that’s the thing; this isn’t new at all.
History tells us that white women have always played a large role in the subjugation and demoralization of black peoples since the first slave ship reached the shores of America. Their silent, yet equal partnership with white male privilege, though hidden deep in the archived canals of America’s secret, was instead draped in a veil of fragile femininity and cloaked in myths of bystander-ism.
Author Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers, uncovers the under-researched reality of white women’s active role in slavery in her book, “They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South”. She examines the underworld of the upper and antebellum south in which white women were just as active in the investment, selling, buying, killing and punishment of enslaved Africans for centuries. She brilliantly unmasks the mythical trope of the gentle southern lady which is always in juxtaposition to the more visibly brutal white male slaveholder. The book dispels the “southern lady” stereotype which historically illustrates a supposed shared victimhood of oppression, and instead reveals their role as a major economic player during this time.
The book highlights how white women would frequently draft up antenuptial agreements so that their “property” (which could include anywhere between 5–20 enslaved Africans) wouldn’t be seized by their husbands in the event that they were to get married. So, their secret financial investments remained safe for centuries — and was poorly documented by historians. These first hand accounts, derived from actual enslaved people — provides an in-depth look into how the masters and mistresses both worked in tandem in shaping the fates of black peoples on the plantation. Census documentation and runaway slave advertisements where white women are listed as “slave owners” serves as proof and helps to corroborate those firsthand testimonials used in Jones-Rogers’ research.
“Although in most studies of slavery the underlying assumption is that only male heads of households exercised mastery over enslaved people, formerly enslaved people forthrightly challenged this view… They spoke of households in which slave-owning couples exercised ‘double mastery.’ Each spouse had his or her own style of slave management and discipline, styles could be complementary or incompatible, and when their styles clashed, conflict was often the result” —
This generational practice was more commonplace than historians may have realized and speaks to the harrowing nature of similarly oppressive events that continues to occur at the hands of white women today. They were, and still are protected and shielded under America’s bosom — with deliberate strokes of damsel in distress imagery covering the more unsettling shades of extremism carried in their arsenal. This sanitization protects their role and makes their complicity to privilege invisible for some because “perpetuating the stereotypes of being passive and weak, especially around issues related to racism, allows white women to see themselves as powerless in initiating change and making a difference in society” as New York University’s Associate Professor Mary McRae mentioned in her keynote speech.
And even though our school books taught us that they were just the daughters and mothers of the oppressors, Jones-Roger’s findings prove they’ve actually always operated as a silent killer. Their deadly venom has been used for centuries — only to be repurposed and packaged under the guise of vulnerability. This mask helps to keep the cycle in rotation with minimal effort and a limited need for reinvention.
White women and their desire to fuel the engine of white patriarchy that they directly benefit from, even carried this proverbial torch as they pushed for the continued segregation of schools half a century ago. They were the pillars — upholding the foundation of anti-black progress as they persuaded America not to commit the ultimate moral sin; integration. An example of this rage can be witnessed through the severely unnerving images of Hazel Bryan’s infamous devilish scream during the Little Rock Nine coverage. Those images are symbolic of the collective rage and fear we’ve seen exhibited by white women who reinforce their authority when in the presence of an unknown black citizen.
These calculated verbal expressions of violence from the past also serve as a connective thread to the litany of entitled calls from white women that we capture, post and share today on Facebook– which is no less dehumanizing than the whips and chains used during slavery to keep us in our place. Their cry for help to a police force known for demonstrating acts of terrorism on black bodies, can lead to real emotional and physical pain for the victims. So, why have they been able to commit crimes without retribution? Because the system was created for them to do so, and well, they are loyal to its tenets.
However, we are not necessarily proposing that Karenism be outlawed entirely, but we’re calling for accountability and a more productive use for it that can benefit others.
“Karening” can still be exerted, if used in a fruitful manner to elicit change and galvanize support within the fight for equality. This powerful venom, was turned on its ear for progressive groups of southern white women in the 1950s and 60’s, as examined by researcher, Anne Stefani:
“Given the climate of intolerance and the risks that reformers ran by advocating desegregation at the time, the women who wanted the Brown decision to be implemented as a step forward toward racial equality relied on the power of image and discourse rather than on open confrontation with segregationist authorities. They deliberately downplayed the issue of race and presented themselves as southern ladies working for the preservation of education in their region.”
White women have a devious and valuable way of cajoling her audiences to feel empathy towards her. They can also cleverly sound an alarm, and have become the master of Fool’s mate; the two-move check mate in chess, to secure the win. Karenism may have originated from her initial role as mistress of the plantation, wielding a quiet yet maddening blow of power to her “property”. Now, it has only slightly evolved into a rallying cry, which sounds that same alarm — calling for her army of soldiers to defend her honor at all cost. So, to the Karens of the world — how will you use your privilege to dismantle the system of white supremacy and patriarchy that you’ve worn underneath your skirt of frailty and shared victimhood for far too long?
