RACIST KARENS GO WAY BACK

The word Karen is often used to described self-entitled White women, who abuse Black men. However, the racist phenomenon was around long before it became an internet meme.

One such example is the shocking case of 14-year-old Emmett Till who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955. He was tortured and killed after being wrongly accused of whistling at White woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family’s grocery store.

His case galvanised the rising civil rights movement, but also highlighted the emergence of what we call ‘Karens’ today. It’s deep-rooted behaviour that’s been around for decades.