How the Name ‘Karen’ Became a Stand-in for White Entitlement

When I read about Amy Cooper, the woman in Central Park who called the police on a black birder because he’d asked her to leash her out-of-control dog, I was horrified. But, as a sociolinguist who studies and writes about language and discrimination, I was also struck by the name given to Cooper in several … Continue reading How the Name ‘Karen’ Became a Stand-in for White Entitlement