A couple was charged with assault on Thursday after a video of a white woman pointing a gun at a Black woman near Detroit circulated on social media.
New video/alternate angle:
A manic #Karen named Jillian Wuestenberg held an unarmed Black mom & her daughters at gunpoint in a Chipotle parking lot outside Detroit on Weds following a heated argument. She has since been arrested & charged with felonious assault. pic.twitter.com/02uSLjuWcM
— MK-Ultra News (@mkultranews) July 2, 2020
The video was just one of many recent examples of the over-policing of Black and brown civilians, while its circulation was evidence of the growing backlash against so-called “Karens.” Our country has long cultivated a culture of entitlement within some white Americans that assumes the criminality of people of color who commit the crime of existing in majority-white spaces.
The Black woman, Takelia Hill, and her teenage daughter confronted the white couple at a Chipotle parking lot after they aggressively bumped into Hill. The exchange between them quickly escalated, and the white woman, Jillian Wuestenberg, pointed a gun at Hill while her husband sat in the car.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a press conference on Thursday that “any weapon that could cause serious and potentially deadly injury can be charged as a felonious assault.”
The maximum penalty for felonious assault is four years in prison. Wuestenberg’s husband, Eric, has since been terminated from Oakland University, where he worked, for “unacceptable” behavior.
Last week’s incident is just one example of how younger generations are actively pushing back against the widely accepted practice of calling police on Black and brown people for non-criminal offenses. In a society that originally thrived and profited off the abuse and criminalization of Black people, eradicating that culture in its entirety has proven difficult.
However, there was previously no language to describe those who over-policed Black and brown people in popular culture until the emergence of “Permit Patty,” “BBQ Becky” and the more general “Karen,” which have worked to hold racist vigilantes accountable through humor and derision.
Comedy doesn’t get any better than this! pic.twitter.com/GG3jmrBqS4
— Bill Burr (@billburr) July 1, 2020
No, “Karen” is not a racial slur. Get a grip.
This is why Karen’s Are Bad for Our Mental Health. pic.twitter.com/kApu7WtCZ4
— DREAM Clothing (@DreamClothingHQ) July 1, 2020
white women: stop saying “karen” it is a slur just as bad as the n-word!
everyone else: stop saying “karen” it is too cute of a name for white ppl who are literally endangering lives
— cassie cao (@thecassiecao) July 2, 2020
The term “Karen” was created to refer to the trope of a middle-aged white woman who calls the police on Black or brown people and feigns danger when they don’t get their way.
Some have taken offense to the term “Karen” and have said it is racist and sexist and comparable to the n-word. The hope is that the term will, at the very least, serve as a mechanism for accountability that has not been applied to white people until now.