You know, we’re not talking about something like this:
That older woman was looking for a fight, I give the exercising woman a lot of credit for dealing with it so well.
I don’t think this really has anything to do with the ages of the people involved.
Acts of casual racism such as this are part of the normalization of racism, which goes hand-in-hand with systematized, institutionalized racism. Part of dealing with the problem is outing those who are behaving this way at all levels, not just the ones murdering people in public.
And it doesn’t just end with the video or internet outrage. This is the kind of event that can make a person fear to go out in public, allow their children to drive a car or get a job in a field dominated by people unlike her, which as a minority is every field. It cost Granny Karen a few seconds, but it could cost the victim her quality of life.
This isn’t just someone being a dick, it is the manifestation of malignant hatred and white supremacy handed down generation over generation to keep people down.
Edited for spelling.
“She’s not the worst example of harmful bigotry out there” is a pretty poor rationale for tolerating this kind of bigotry. There will ALWAYS be someone worse.
Yes, this kind of racism happens all the time. That’s the problem.
How do you accidentally bump into someone during a pandemic? The AWW was obviously creating an excuse to unload her tirade.
Okay, so this happened on the East steps of the Armstrong Theater in Charles H. Wilson park: https://goo.gl/maps/cWzb3w7VuxS91V1V9 (Google satellite image)
There are three sets of steps surrounding that platform: https://goo.gl/maps/xkL1p2H67RkJmacU8 (360° photo from 2016, still under construction).
Here’s another 360° photo of the structure from 2020, taken from the West side: https://goo.gl/maps/F988QNVZnezQZbmY8
On the second video, racist Karen walked up the East steps 25 seconds prior to walking down and purposely bumping into the exercising woman.
Racist Karen definitely did this on purpose; she didn’t even need to go up the platform for 25 seconds and she didn’t need to use those particular steps when there are two other sets of steps right there!
Also, there are two extra ramps (no steps) on the South side! (see 360° photo from 2020 above).
So, racist Karen had five options to step down from that platform!!!
He’d be dead by now.
Torrance has a pretty big Asian community. Many of my Japanese-American friends grew up there. I can’t imagine this ending well for that racist lady.
She isn’t an authority figure, but the authority figures are the symptom and she’s the disease
Agreed. And that is the issue. A black man who does this would not be subject to the same kind of Internet rage. He would be subject to police harassment, likely arrest and possible death. None of which should – or will – happen to this racist old woman.
I’m coming around to the general consensus (as voiced in the many responses to my posts) regarding the importance of this story, though I think the passion is somewhat misplaced. I just view her as being a symptom of a larger problem, not the problem itself. Treat the problem properly and the symptoms should go away.
Well, at least it seems the woman exercising would handily win a fistfight or wrestling match with the racist Karen.
(I understand very well that this is not the wellspring of the fear the woman exercising has experienced here.)
I think that the authority figures are the disease. They have the power to enforce the rules.
THIS!! Exactly this.
Yes he would. There are TONS of racists online, including the American president. He would ALSO be shot by the cops.
Racist cops frequently have elderly moms. People usually do t grow up racist without getting some help being that way.
Easily said, when you are not the person on the receiving end of such unsolicited animosity.
And that was just one instance; the phrase “Death by 1000 Cuts” exists for a reason.
Just because a problem doesn’t negatively impact you directly doesn’t mean that it’s not a problem.
It’s not just being raised by racists, though that certainly contributes. Our entire society helps indoctrinate people into racist ideology.
Especially when some glib person extols the entire conversation as “no big deal.” People who do that are a complicit part of the problem.
No, you have it exactly backwards. Here’s one of my Karen stories.
I was walking with my family and our dogs near the ocean. Officially, no dogs are allowed, but no one gives a crap about those rules, especially in May. It was about 50 Fahrenheit when we were walking. Plenty of other people were walking dogs, when Karen comes up to us and says very loudly “excuse me, didn’t you read the sign saying no dogs allowed?” My mom looks at all the white people with dogs around us and says, “Really? I couldn’t tell. Thanks for letting us know.” And we proceeded to walk away. As we walk away, she starts ranting and raving at us, all, like “I’ll call the police on you!”, and “you people are why we banned dogs from this beach in the first place! Children play here!” Of course, there are dozens of other people with dogs in sight… we’re not on the beach, we’re on the gravel trail away from the beach. We went along our merry way and, go figure, no cops showed up.
Now, consider that this happened near Vancouver, BC, which everyone says is full of nice, tolerant people. Think of how much worse it is elsewhere. We’re Asian and we don’t even get the worst of it here…
