We know Karens have issues. The moniker, given to women who are caught on video vocalizing their displeasure or rhetoric in the middle of emotional bad moments, have kept audiences laughing on social media for some time. Let’s focus on one noteworthy individual who deserves a second look.
From the details available, it seems a Kindergarten teacher named Lisa Platt was at a Walmart on the big island of Hawai’i a year ago, when an altercation began with Hilo police officers over an issue in the parking lot. She called for aid after a local referred to her as an unwanted “haole” (used in a derogatory way to refer to non-indigenous and/or white people), and told her to return to the mainland where he felt she and her ilk apparently belonged. The officers and she did not get far with the conversation, because she had felt threatened by the local, was not receiving support from the officers, and at last she became enraged and began dropping f-bombs, then continued with an equally volatile rant about her issues with the locals. The language was not pretty, as you expect in any “you people” speech.
The problem with Karen videos is that the camera usually rolls only after the first volley has been fired, so we see only the return fire and don’t get what set it off. The cops arrived in response to Ms. Platt’s phone call, so there is no record of the local’s speaking which started it all, unless there is a parking lot camera which recorded his face, and an interpreter could lip-read.
The video of “Hilo Karen” went viral (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtzamSbln58), and Ms. Platt now is the notorious intro sequence for a YouTube channel called “Karens in the Wild.” She also lost her teaching job and, despite a public apology, Lisa Platt is another statistic of cancel culture, public shunning and our society’s festering morals wound that we re-infect with every new rejection.
The human way of handling people in the grip of bad judgment used to be correction of the behavior, not shutting out the person. We throw Karens (and their male equivalent Darrens) away like the weekly trash without a care, but not all of them are the same. The local probably could have benefitted from some sensitivity training himself.
Lisa Platt was on the attack after being backed into a psychological corner, but some Karens are anti-maskers who spend their time poring over resources which they can quote to boost their excuse to go facial commando. Other Karens have issues over waiting for proper service when ordering food. Still others ominously judge people in public places or the neighborhood who don’t seem compliant with the laws or guidelines said Karens are so diligently watchful over. Video cameras capture their passionate soapbox speeches, and we watch open-mouthed as they throw things, upend displays or leave their vehicles to get up close and personal at the drive-through.
We are white privilege personified when we show half a Karen story, don’t help those affected, or act like a full-fledged one ourselves. We shouldn’t turn away from our own shortcomings, but embrace them with solving them the true goal.
And we are capable of being better than a label.
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