Three women were stopped and harangued by an embittered Karen for daring to attempt to scrub graffiti off a federal building in Washington, D.C.
The visibly agitated passerby called out from her car in an accusative tone “Why are you guys removing ‘Black Lives Matter’ graffiti?” to the women who were using scrub brushes and buckets to remove a large red ‘BLM’ tag on the side of the building.
Initially thinking the question was asked in good faith and genuine curiosity, the three young women stated they tried in another spot but they couldn’t get it off, so had moved to their current location. The Karen asked again, more forceful, ” But why do you want that to come off?”
The women reiterated that they wanted to remove the vandalism because it was a federal building and they wanted to do their part to help clean up.
The frustrated woman then all but called them racists, accusing: “So you don’t care about black lives, then.” When the women responded with “Not at all. That’s not at all what we’re saying. We certainly care about black lives.” The angry passerby retorted that they obviously didn’t care about black lives “enough to leave up a message.”
“We don’t disagree with the message, ma’am, It’s just on the building and we’re just trying to clean it.”
Undeterred and not caring to listen or reason, with venom dripping from her voice, the peevish woman dismissed them. “Not a great way to use your white privilege, ladies….that’s disgusting.” and then drove off.
How this woman thought filming this interaction, making those comments, and posting them to social media would make her seen as anything less than a contemptuous harpy is beyond us.
