<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\nNow you might be thinking, what in the bass-ackwards hell would embolden these Karens to pull this ish; at work no less. Well…..You. Me. Us. We emboldened them, remember? When we thought it was just making small talk asking us about our educational background, our family, our favorite kind of music, but as we discussed in part one, it was really to compile data so they could see what kind of \u201cblack person\u201d we were. A microaggressive ruse to determine how they can sneak their blatant racism into the dynamic. Lest we forget the golden rule of thumb: WHITE PEOPLE ALWAYS KNOW WHAT THEY\u2019RE DOING. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that they\u2019ve run their test diagnostics, if-you-will, they start making overtly snide comments about fill-in-the-blank parts of town being \u2018crime-riddled and poor\u2019. Y\u2019know, the code words for the predominantly black parts of town. Now they crack jokes or make comments about stereotypical behavior of black people like eating fried chicken or watermelon, as if none of us are vegan or vegetarian or heaven-forbid we like other fruits. Suddenly they have interesting takes on our fashion, our hair, our culture, our legends, our men, our women, our every-damn-thing. Where in the blueberries-in-the-potato salad hell, did they get all this audacity from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Us. WE gave it to them. While we were thinking all their small talk was in good faith. They were preparing us for the big one all along. The blatant, the overt, the obvious racism. Once again, \u201cwe\u2019ve been had,\u201d as our wise, Brother Malcolm X said. They ALWAYS know what they\u2019re doing, family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I imagine the suspense is killing you by now so, let\u2019s get into it, and examine some scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we last discussed WK1, she was micro-aggroing Black History Month by telling me about some white woman who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. One of the more heinous interactions I had with WK1, was around the first few days I started the job. Somehow, we got on the topic of gentrification and what was happening in the communities on Cleveland\u2019s east side. Like most black people, I am opposed to gentrification because I believe it\u2019s a publicity stunt at best.1 WK1 decided to see how racist she could be around me and said this little gem,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/span>When Karen Pushes the Line<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n\u201cWell it\u2019s a statistical fact that when black people move into a predominantly white neighborhood, crime goes up. Those people move in from their old neighborhoods and they think they can still act the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Me: \u201cSo you\u2019re willing to bet your life that crime goes up because of the presence of black people in predominantly white neighborhoods and NOT because they\u2019re being harassed by police and taken in on BS charges because they \u2018don\u2019t belong there\u2019, aren\u2019t having the cops called on them for the same shit they would otherwise just yell at white kids about and then those same people are pressing charges when a simple apology from the white kids suffices in any other situation? You\u2019re willing to bet your entire existence that that ISN\u2019T what\u2019s actually happening which in turn would seem like crime is going up because these \u2018crimes\u2019 are getting reported on now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re not pickin\u2019 up what I\u2019m puttin\u2019 down, WK1 went radio silent. See friends, these white broads are convinced that black women aren\u2019t educated. So when they meet one who is, it f***s with their standard operating system. Like a computer that\u2019s fritzing out. Needless to say, we didn\u2019t speak about anything else after that. Case and point family, WK1 is the norm. She\u2019s the garden variety, stereotypical white co-worker who we\u2019ve all dealt with, or currently are dealing with. She has ALL the boldness, ALL the self-importance and ALL the superiority complex of a never-been-checked Karen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n