캐런(Karen)은 2010년대 후반 미국에서 사용하기 시작된 용어로, 무례한 요구 및 권리를 주장하는 중산층 백인 여성을 가리키는 속어이다.[1][2] 2020년에는 코로나19 팬데믹과 조지 플로이드 시위 등의 사건을 통해 해당 용어가 점점 더 자주 등장했으며, 가디언은 2020년을 "캐런의 해"라고 불렀다.[3]
'Karen' is associated with the kind of person who demands to 'speak to the manager' in order to belittle service industry workers, is anti-vaccination, and carries out racist micro-aggressions, such as asking to touch black people's hair. But a predominant feature of the 'Karen' stereotype is that they weaponise their relative privilege against people of colour - for example, when making police complaints against black people for minor or even - in numerous cases - fictitious infringements.
The image of a white woman calling police on Black people put the lie to the myth of racial innocence