You cant tell me life aint funny!
Ughghh, karens. there’s a rabbit-karen in the rabbit community…uh yeah there are rabbit communities…
And I just got bit by a wild karen! She messaged me with a lengthy, vehement, dissertation about my latest rabbit advice. I offered some suggestions she’d never heard of and for some karens, thats a problem. You see, this particular breed of karen believes they must know more than non karens. So she made up some lies about how dangerous my rabbit advice was, not knowing that I research everything. And no, ‘”Hey Google” doesn’t count. By the way, it is a community where people are seeking and offer up advice, and there were many, many pieces of advice being offered. One piece of advice I offered had to do with the rabbit-guinea pig bond (basic rabbit 101 stuff), another on the application of lanolin to the sutured, neutered area that a rabbit kept picking at after it scabbed over.
Now there are different breeds of karen, just like there are different breeds of rabbit. This particular breed of karen would never admit to, and notably may be totally unconscious of, the bias they have toward a black person who says something they don’t know anything about . So what are these karens actually looking for?
Karens are looking for a sense of “rightness” to something that looks “off”. Wild karens (the ones who lash out) are perplexed, bewildered, disbelieving that a nonkaren could know something a karen does not know, because that’s not the natural order of things, in their mind. Oddly enough, even when it pertains to a person’s own culture. You heard right. Karens be trippin. It triggers them, bothers them, and they come out of nowhere to let YOU know that they never heard of something before, so therefore it must not be true, especially coming from someone who looks like you. Eavesdropping on conversations, barreling down shopping ailes, dm-ing total strangers. Karens are an annoying part of our society, but just like all of us, well, they’re human too.
Admittedly, (I guess), they deserve our patience as much as anyone else (sigh). Dont get me wrong, if I had the opportunity to set her straight, I would have with the quickness, but we are not friends on FB so there was no way for me to respond. And there was no way I was about to look her up just to give her a piece of my mind. I was ready though..I was like who the hell do you think you are tryna tell MEEH! So I blocked her instead. I already know from past experience that trying to reason with these karens gets you nowhere really fast because this glazed look of disbelief comes over their face and all they can see in those moments is their stereotypical belief. Also the absurdity of arguing over rabbit facts in a rabbit community was kind of cray, so I had to let it go. It just seemed so….silly.
So, shit, karens need the same compassion for their journey as anyone else.? Yes, because they are only human and like ALL of us, flawed. After studying this breed for some time (it comes in both male & female) I have come to the conclusion that they are fully unaware of their bias, often in situations where they believe they are helping. But there is [what I call] “a glitch in the system” when they are presented with something that does not match their reality, and that is: a black person cannot give an intelligent answer to a question a white person didn’t know. Something is wrong with that picture. Since the unconscious truth is that black people don’t possess the same intelligence as a white person – and this is a common belief by many in the culture – someone who presents otherwise has begun to unravel the truth. They may not even know why they are so angry, they just know something’s not right. When a person has an awakening of this sort, it is not uncommon, and therefore understandable, that they fight to hold onto their sense of reality. In this way, a rabbit karen is no different from anyone else who is faced with a truth they believed in all their life… may not actully be true at all.
This becomes important – very, very important – when your whiteness is your claim to power, your claim to being “better than” someone else, when your whiteness defines you. It is a scary thing to feel as if the rug is being pulled out from under you. This is why the trigger, this is why the anger, and this is why the “karen”.
Just like all people who feel powerless, because we are trained to define ourselves by external things (money, education, a big house, an expensive car, being white) karens can be an annoying nuissance to others in an attempt to right a wrong. Because of this, the karen must battle every non karen who shines their light. But the truth is, we all have a little karen inside of us. The good news is the more we integrate, apply emotional intelligence and simply Allow others to be who and what they are without believing my opinion is the truth of all things, the easier it is to not be a karen.
I invite you to discover your “inner-karen” through honest introspection. Fair warning: It’s not easy to admit to and its not for the faint of heart. You will need to be honest, humble, and willing to look at your own current or past flaws, when it comes to this discovery. The reward is greater understanding and less criticism of the karens in our society, which will make for a better world to live in.
Meanwhile: Back off, rabbit karen, before I sick my growling, human-biting, mouse-killing, rabbit on your ass. Then you’ll see just how cute and fuzzy she really is!
The Cultural Connection 