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The Conversation USA

How 'Karen' went from a popular baby name to a stand-in for white entitlement

  • Written by Robin Queen, Professor of Linguistics, English Language and Literatures and Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan
imageWatch out, Karen coming through.Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

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...

Read more: How 'Karen' went from a popular baby name to a stand-in for white entitlement

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