Video circulating on social media shows an incident at a Florida airport where several panicked travelers called police on a middle-aged white woman who lost her cool after a Black man refused to apologize for calling her a Karen, leading to a harrowing confrontation at the flight gate.
The video, posted to TikTok earlier this week under the title “who is this karen?” starts out in the middle of a heated argument between the unidentified man, who is seated, and the belligerent white woman, who is standing and getting in the man’s personal space while holding a half-finished cup of iced coffee.
Social media sleuths were still working to learn the identity of the woman, but so far her name has not surfaced following the disturbance on May 19.
Some of the words said during the exchange are inaudible on the video, but soon the man raises his voice to get the attention of police, prompting some passengers to move away from the escalating dispute.
But the woman acted eager to confront the man more, and moved even closer, almost touching him, while asking why he was getting so upset, to which the man fumed, “Because you’re being a freaking racist and you’re discriminating, as soon as I sat down!”
The man held up his hand briefly while still seated to block the woman from coming any closer, warning that he was getting irritated because she was standing too close.
From there he tells her repeatedly to “Get out of my face” while also accusing the woman of threatening to chop his fingers unless he got up and switched seats in the waiting area.
After this, the argument escalated as the woman began pacing back and forth in front of the man while other passengers tried to intervene by politely asking the woman to move on and find another seat.
Next, the woman walks over to another white woman, looking for someone to take sides with her, while alleging the man had just “threatened my son’s life,” however, the stranger shook her head no and called the woman a liar to her face.
More bickering ensued as the woman walked back over to the man, still seated in the same spot, but by now he clearly had enough of the childish game and he yelled at the top of his voice to, “Get out of my face,” prompting other passengers to call airport security.
Another woman comes into the frame and calmly tries to persuade the woman to back off the man and walk away before situation escalated, but she turns and says, “No, I don’t have to,” and proceeds to walk back to confront the man again, seemingly trying to provoke a physical altercation.
Bystanders plead with the woman to “leave him alone” but instead of leaving she continues to stand right at the man’s toes.
Multiple voices can be heard in the background, imploring the woman to stop causing a scene, but she never backs down.
“Somebody call security!” someone yells. “I would walk away right now,” another person advises before adding, “You’re being ridiculous.”
Soon two heavily armed sheriff’s deputies arrive and one of them defuses the situation by ordering the woman to back up.
At the same time she immediately began to explain that she’s the victim and the Black man was the aggressor. “This guy is screaming at me,” she said.
But witnesses to the disturbance weren’t having any of the woman’s lies, and spoke up for the man, telling the officers he did nothing wrong.
The video cuts off before showing how the situation ended, so it’s not clear if the woman was arrested on charges of creating a public disturbance, although the episode never turned physical.
Those who viewed the video on TikTok applauded the bystanders for not taking sides with the woman just because she was the same skin color.
“I love seeing people ganging up on Karens,” one user wrote. “Put that b— in her place.”
“Thank you to the women who stood up for him,” another person said.
Someone else noted that the Black man would have been arrested immediately if the roles had been reversed, and that “Airport Karen” got a pass in this case.
Another person said, “She needs help really, this is ridiculous.”
Some people clamored for part two of the video to see how it ended, but it’s not clear if that portion was filmed.
Presumptuous behavior by American white women, which has been caught on camera in countless confrontations around the country in recent years, has become known as “Karenism” — where these women try to use white privilege to their advantage, often leading to embarrassing public dust-ups like this one.
The typically racist episodes usually involve a harrowing face-off in which the stereotypical white woman becomes cantankerous and causes a scene or makes false claims to twist the truth.
These types of situations have become more common as they often go viral on social media. As a result, the name Karen has become a pejorative term toward American white women who often use an air of entitlement at the expense of others, especially people of color.
The name has also become universally accepted to describe someone who asks to “speak to the manager” or calls authorities as a way of weaponizing the police against Black people.
One stark example was the case of Amy Cooper, a woman in New York’s Central Park who called police on an innocent man in 2020, claiming “there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
After video emerged on social media proving Cooper had lied, she was fired from her job and was later charged with filing a false police report, although the criminal charges against Cooper were later dismissed.
