As Was Only A Matter Of Time, There Is Now A 'Karen' Movie
With the past two years' bevy of high-profile Karen incidents, aka white women committing micro and macro aggressions against mostly Black people, it was only a matter of time until the movie industry attempted to cash in on the Karen meme. That time is now, after the trailer of Coke Daniels' Karen went viral this morning.
The trailer is very … on the nose, to say the least. It depicts a Black couple (Cory Hardrict and Jasmine Burke) terrorized by their neighbor named "Karen White" (Orange Is The New Black's Taryn Manning), who goes through threatening shenanigans ripped straight from Karen-related headlines to try and get them to move. At one point, she indeed threatens to "call the manager" on the couple while dining in a restaurant. She installs a security camera on her home in front of the couple. Jasmine Burke's Imani says, "Wait a minute, we have a white entitled neighbor named Karen."
The film is supposed to be a horror film akin to Jordan Peele's instant-classic Get Out, but the comparison wasn't a favorable one in the eyes of some viewers on Twitter.
Manning seems to be excited to use her role for social change. "I felt a social responsibility to take on this role," she said. "Even if I had to play the villain to affect change around the globe, then I was more than willing to step into the role. What’s been going on is devastating. It’s time for change and for me to be a part of the bigger picture, meant a lot to me." Judging by the reaction to the trailer, it's doubtful Karen will change the world.