Earlier: Pregnant White Nurse Cries For Help, Is Denounced As A Karen
From the New York Times news section:
Uber’s Diversity Chief Put on Leave After Complaints of Insensitivity
The executive hosted sessions about race and being a white woman that were titled “Don’t Call Me Karen,” prompting an employee uproar.
By Kellen Browning
Kellen Browning writes about Uber and the gig economy.
May 21, 2023
Uber has placed its longtime head of diversity, equity and inclusion on leave after workers complained that an employee event she moderated, titled “Don’t Call Me Karen,” was insensitive to people of color.
Dara Khosrowshahi [Iranian], Uber’s chief executive, and Nikki Krishnamurthy [South Asian surname but might be a white woman with an Indian husband], the chief people officer, last week asked Bo Young Lee [East Asian], the head of diversity, “to step back and take a leave of absence while we determine next steps,” according to an email on Thursday from Ms. Krishnamurthy to some employees that was viewed by The New York Times.
“We have heard that many of you are in pain and upset by yesterday’s Moving Forward session,” the email said. “While it was meant to be a dialogue, it’s obvious that those who attended did not feel heard.”
Employees’ concerns centered on a pair of events, one last month and another last Wednesday, that were billed as “diving into the spectrum of the American white woman’s experience” and hearing from white women who work at Uber, with a focus on “the ‘Karen’ persona.” They were intended to be an “open and honest conversation about race,” according to the invitation.
But workers instead felt that they were being lectured on the difficulties experienced by white women and why “Karen” was a derogatory term and that Ms. Lee was dismissive of their concerns, according to messages sent on Slack, a workplace messaging tool, that were viewed by The Times.
The term Karen has become slang for a white woman with a sense of entitlement who often complains to a manager and reports Black people and other racial minorities to the authorities. Employees felt the event organizers were minimizing racism and the harm white people can inflict on people of color by focusing on how “Karen” is a hurtful word, according to the messages and an employee who attended the events. A prominent “Karen” incident occurred in 2020, when Amy Cooper, a white woman, called 911 after a Black man bird-watching in New York’s Central Park asked her to leash her dog.
I think there was a more recent Karen-calling in New York City, but the NYT hasn’t even mentioned the whole embarrassing brouhaha.
The point is that, while of course “Karen” is a racist and sexist slur, it’s an anti-white racist and sexist slur, so that makes it good because whites are bad.
