‘My Karen Translator’ Explains Racism to White Women
Earlier this year, after weeks of messages from White women asking for reassurances that they were indeed allies, Jodi-Ann Burey vented in a group iMessage.
She had been contacted by people she hadn’t heard from in years — including a White woman who didn’t even reach out after knowing Burey had cancer and couldn’t walk.
According to a report in OneZero from Hope King, Her friends half-jokingly suggested a sort of customer support for racism: a Karen Translator.
“When you get white people needing your validation — whether it’s out of guilt, self-righteousness, cluelessness, RACISM… all of the above… How about you start forwarding their messages to me at ‘mykarentranslator@gmail.com’ and I will respond,” her friend Caitlin Lombardi wrote back.
Lombardi, along with another White friend Elizabeth Jarvie, eventually started My Karen Translator, a Gmail and Instagram account that would respond to emotionally burdensome messages or comments online. Replies to Karens are often directly over email, and explanations of why specific ideas are racist are explained on the group’s Instagram.
“I remember Jodi-Ann saying she would never get anything else done — like eating or sleeping — if she confronted every racist incident she encounters,” Lombardi told King. “The whole point of My Karen Translator is to shift that burden of confrontation, education, and growth onto white people while validating the experiences of POC.”
