Reminds me of the "Karen" meme [0] that ridiculed the behavior of "speaking to the person in charge" when dealing with blankfaces blindly applying policies. The meme has become a weapon to make fun of anyone questioning the blankface's authority.
What's dehumanizing is a white woman confronting you because your PoC child is playing on the sidewalk in front of her condo and demanding you leave because your child is inside napping (by the way, Sidewalk Suzie was the executive director of a humanitarian institute.)
What's dehumanizing is showing up for a BBQ in a park, and having a white woman waddle over and demand you show her your permits and then call the police, when she has literally no evidence whatsoever that you lack a permit other than your skin color and her prejudice *and it's not her job or business in the first place to enforce permits*.
What's dehumanizing is being an accomplished, educated Harvard professor and getting arrested in your own home because some white woman saw you at the door of your fancy home in Cambridge and thought you were "suspicious"
Maybe you should be more concerned about systemic over-policing of people of color, which seems to raaaather often be initiated by a white women minding their own goddamn business. Like, seriously: these incidents never involve PoC bringing in the police, and it's very rarely white dudes. It's damn near always white women.
The Karen thing started in retail ("I'd like to speak to the manager") but a subset of people are trying to equate it with racism exclusively. That's what the one you're responding to is trying to do.
The Karen meme ridicules people trying to bypass the blankfaces to directly talk with the policy-makers. It also puts them into the same category as racists calling the police on minorities quite literally minding their own business.
That article has a photo of a rich white woman (with a long history of abusing the legal system to get what she wants, it turns out) pointing a handgun at black people peacefully walking on the street in front of her house. Doesn't really support your claim very well.
In any case: the term "Karen" well before it was an internet meme was coded language for people of color to talk about white women exploiting their gender and racial privilege to boss PoC around when they're doing something the Karen doesn't like. --- Edit: my bad, I had Karen confused with "Becky." Becky is the term used by PoC to describe privilege-abusing white women. ---
Sidewalk Susie, Permit Patty, and BBQ Becky. All white women confronting people of color for doing things they don't like, bossing them around and when that doesn't work, siccing the police on them, because they know that cops come running for white women. No "blankfaces" to be seen.
It's also used by people in the service industry to describe white women who try to order them around and are abusive because they think they're entitled to special treatment. Karen is a Karen not because she wants to "speak to the person in charge" but because she thinks she's special and important...and in turn demands to speak to people in charge. A store or restaurant employee who loses their job if they don't follow a company policy is not a blankface.
> In any case: the term "Karen" well before it was an internet meme was coded language for people of color to talk about white women exploiting their gender and racial privilege to boss PoC around when they're doing something the Karen doesn't like. --- Edit: my bad, I had Karen confused with "Becky." Becky is the term used by PoC to describe privilege-abusing white women. ---
I had no idea.
> Karen is a Karen not because she wants to "speak to the person in charge" but because she thinks she's special and important...and in turn demands to speak to people in charge.
I feel like that was the original use of the term and then it grew to anyone who wants to "speak to the manager" and then to white women being racist.
> A store or restaurant employee who loses their job if they don't follow a company policy is not a blankface.
[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-53588201