Most of the time, someone will fire back when a Karen gets mean and belligerent. Not everyone has the patience to be level-headed. There’s certainly a righteousness to matching a person’s energy and feel right in the moment (even if they deserve it). However, what can be equally effective (if not more so) is to ‘kill with kindness,’ as the saying goes. When one California mother caught heat from a Karen, she fought back with kindness.
TikToker Ms.Nylaxm shared a video of her mother stopping a Karen from in her tracks during the holidays. Apparently, a rude, old woman told Ms. Nylaxm’s mother to “go to the back of the line” at a Barnes & Noble bookstore. Instead of losing her cool, this mother decided to fight back in the kindest way and show that not all hearts are rotten. Instead of fighting back—which is what all of us would probably do—Nylaxm’s mother paid for the woman’s entire cart.
In the video, you can see this woman’s mother put all the woman’s items on the checkout counter. When the old woman tries to give her a credit card to pay for it, she brushes it off. Judging by the expression on the cashier’s face, it’s both amusing and unbelievable. When all of the Karen’s items are checked out, the mom hands her the Barnes & Noble bag and she’s all smiles. They happily exchange pleasantries and she walks away with all her new goodies.
Now, you may wonder, why would this woman be rewarding somebody for being rude to them? But the truth is, she’s simply handling the problem in a different way. It doesn’t always have to be an exchange of ugly words (although sometimes you have to). Instead of lashing out and matching an angry Karen’s energy, she made somebody’s day a little brighter.
“Fighting ignorance with kindness is such a power move,” one commenter stated. And that kindness could completely shatter someone’s backwards opinions on race, gender, and sexuality.
“This is going to eat that lady up inside forever,” said another. Hopefully, in a way that has her reevaluating her attitude. I know children with better manners.
And you may wonder, did it actually teach this lady a lesson? Did it teach her you should always be kind and not treat random people with disrespect just because you’re having a bad day? Who knows. But it probably made this mom feel good. Hate is easy; love is hard.
