You may be familiar with the fable, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Social media has allowed us to witness certain women displaying this type of behavior in malls, parks and other public places across America.
The term “Crying Karens” describes the actions displayed by some white women who play the victim when encountering someone of a different race. They claim that person is trying to harm them in one way or another. They sometimes seek back-up from a store manager or other authority figures.
Suzanne Degges-White is a professor and chair of the counseling and counselor education department at Northern Illinois University. She said these performances have been playing out in America for some time, but the internet has given them a wider view.
“So, it's new in some ways because social media brings things into our consciousness that maybe we hadn't seen before,” she said. “But this using our oppressed status to oppress others is something that sadly has been going on for far too long.”
One notable instance that had tragic consequences took place in 1955. Carolyn Bryant Donham accused Emmett Till, 14, of making advances towards her. Donham was white and Till was Black. He was lynched after this accusation. Years later she admitted to author Timothy Tyson that she had lied about the details of the encounter.
A more recent – and less deadly -- occurrence of the behavior took place in New York City when Amy Cooper, another white woman, called the police on Christian Cooper, a Black man who was birdwatching, in Central Park.
Degges-White said we saw this conduct more in the past couple of years because of the spotlight that is shining on equality in America.
“The crying Karen's have always been folks who want to use their privilege to oppress others,” Degges-White explained, “even by using their privilege to show how they are victims themselves. So yes, it's a way of responding to society cultural events.”
She said this way of thinking leads those who feel oppressed or a loss of power to find others to put down so that they can feel better about who they are.
“You have to remember that this kind of behavior, all behavior like that is learned,” she added. “Racism is learned -- the hysterical reactions --I cried, once I got what I wanted, I'm going to do it again. So, it's this idea of reward for this behavior.”
She said those who falsely claim that they are being mistreated can change the way people respond to those who are being victimized.
Degges-White suggests that those who are close to these women who cry wolf should help disengage their actions by having honest conversations with them without accusing them of doing something wrong.
“Say, ‘Hey, calm down, take a breath, step back a minute. Let's talk about what happened,’” she suggested. “And we need to have curiosity in terms of where these tears are coming from, ‘Tell me what's going on for you. I want to understand what's happened. So, we can figure out a way to help you get what you need.’”
She said this behavior will continue until a societal shift takes place where everyone realizes that we are all human beings regardless of race. This change won’t happen until individuals learn to focus on what brings us together instead of what separates us, and this realization will only come through education.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
