Caryn With a C is Still a Karen
Progressives also need to address their biases
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Many of us White fighters for social justice spend so much time combatting racism that we forget to reflect on our own biases, microaggressions, voting decisions and thoughts. We ignore how we also have miles to go to become more evolved humans. To become part of solutions rather than unintentional perpetrators of unjust systems.
In recent months, I’ve overheard a spattering of comments from White liberal friends that illuminate how far we have to go.
Things like “You’re a credit to your race,” or “You’re so well spoken.” Phrases such as “When I look at you, I don’t see color,” and “There’s only one race — the human race.”
While statements like these seem well-intended and harmless, they convey deep racist undertones implying that the rest of Black people don’t live up to some mythical white standard. They invalidate a person’s identity as a proud Black man or woman.
Today, blatant racism is often called out. White women get labeled “Karen,” for example, when they act like they’re superior. Liberal Amy Cooper famously earned the moniker when she dialed 911 after a Black male bird watcher asked her to leash her dog in Central Park.
But “Central Park Karens” don’t shed their biases without deep reflection and conscious effort, and neither do many progressives who fancy themselves as woke.
Our own president has a long history of racist ideas and statements. He equated Black with poor as recently as 2019. But don’t just blame him; studies show liberals increasingly associate Black people with poverty and actually end up having far less empathy for poor White people as a result.
Biden also worked alongside segregationist senators to oppose busing to integrate the schools.
In 2020, Biden told a group of Latino journalists that,
“unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”
Biden even asked a Black journalist if he was a drug addict when the reporter merely asked Biden if he had taken any cognitive tests. A fair…
