ABSTRACT
This chapter historicizes and analyzes the “Karen” trope, a present-day critique of white womanhood in antiracist discourse. Hamad challenges white feminist perceptions of the Karen concept as misogynist, explaining that “Karen is read as female not because she is more loathsome or culpable than [racist] white men (and therefore sexist), but because she typifies the traditional role of white women in white society: a lesser member of the dominant class who appeals to those above her by sacrificing those below her.” Hamad shows that the Karen trope highlights the ways in which white women, in a context of white supremacy, have historically weaponized their whiteness to shore up their racial privilege even as they are targeted for gender subordination.
