In a world where you can be anything, don’t be a Karen. Indeed, much like many rude and overly entitled women we’ve seen lately, there’s been a high volume of incidents that center on ill-mannered and needlessly demanding people who make it their prerogative to rain on everybody else’s parade. In Oakland, California recently, a Karen with a “loud mouth” was spotted harassing a worker in an Asian market with hateful speech, before threatening to mace him.
The video is recorded by the store employee, and although we don’t get to see the woman harassing shoppers and elders in the footage, it’s accompanied by the description, “Woman Harasses Shoppers at Oakland Asian Market Targets Elders and Workers With Hate Speech“. On the other hand, we do get to see the Karen harassing and threatening the worker in the video.
Specifically, the clip takes place inside the Asian market, and centers on an irate Black woman who is holding a red shopping basket filled with groceries, while sporting a black t-shirt, grey sweatpants, and large spectacles. It seems that some commotion has already occurred, and the employee is asking the Karen, “[What] you say?” as the clip begins.
“S*ssy. F*ggot. P*ssy. I’m in the LGBT. So I wish you wouldn’t. You f*ggot.” fires the angry Karen, as she approaches the worker. “You need to step back.” warns the man, backing away slightly. “You need to step back!” echoes the woman, although she actually steps towards the cameraman.
“You got your phone in my f*cking face? Yeah, you wanna get maced like a retard? It doesn’t feel good. You’re gonna need an ambulance.” the Karen threatens, as she holds up a can of what appears to be mace in her right hand. “You need to chill out.” exclaims the worker, calmly. “You need to chill the f*ck out and mind your business. With your f*cking phone. You look stupid. Put that away. I don’t consent to you f*cking recording me. I feel provoked. I will call law enforcement.” To this, the man simply declares, “Please do. You need the number?“
“Yeah, f*ggot. You need them. I don’t.” utters the furious woman, as she turns to walk away. At the end of the clip, you can hear her exclaim under her breath, “Disrespectful piece of sh*t. And you stare at my t*ts, you f*cking creep. You know what the f*ck you did. Get that on camera, you f*cking creep. And you’re recording me in the back of the f*cking store in the corner. That’s proof enough. You b*tch.”
While the video continues to garner attention online, social media users dived into the comments section to weigh in on the heated confrontation. Over on Facebook, one netizen wrote, “Always the same loud mouths making a scene” while another chimed in with, “Some people are so disrespectful. This women has such a mouth on her. Yelling disrespectfully in a public store no less. Besides he’s only recording you because he’s never seen a Karen out of the wild, so calm down.” A third commenter over on Reddit expressed, “Step back!……proceeds to follow him.” while a fourth simply wrote, “I bet she feels provoked quite frequentlyโฆ.“
It’s currently unclear whether the police were called to the scene of the tense altercation, but one thing is for sure: that Karen’s awful behavior is seriously beyond the pale.
