Left-wing Hollywood star Debra Messing condemned America as racist based on a “Karen” parody video going viral online.
“Our country’s racism is disgusting and an embarrassment. She should be arrested for larceny,” Debra Messing tweeted in reaction to a parody video shared by rapper ICE T, which depicted a woman pretending to steal someone’s mail.
“Karen has decided to take this guys Mail…. Then he apparently KILLS her.. But she’s still talkin. #Karen lol,” tweeted ICE T of the parody video, using a the term “Karen,” which some consider a racial slur against white women.
The top definition for term in the Urban Dictionary describes “Karen” as a “Middle aged woman, typically blonde, makes solutions to others’ problems an inconvenience to her although she isn’t even remotely affected.”
Social media users, however, quickly took to Twitter to respond to Messing’s tweet, informing her that she was reacting to a parody “Karen” video made between two friends.
“It’s a fake video by a comedian and his friend,” one Twitter user commented.
“This was staged. They are friends,” another wrote.
“These two friends do these types of videos all the time,” another commenter explained.
“This video is a parody,” another tweeted.
“This was a parody video posted by two friends weeks ago,” another Twitter user wrote.
“This was staged… Mocking the actual Karens. But it’s hard to recognize a parody when this could easily be real,” another said.
“Fake!” another exclaimed. “There’s plenty of this real shit out there, let’s not be dumb.”
One incident that occurred last year — dubbed by social media users as a “Karen” encounter — involved a white woman who was walking her dog in Central Park, and called the police during a videotaped dispute with a black man, who she claimed was “recording” her and “threatening” her and her dog.
The concept of a “Karen” has apparently become such a popular sensation among social media users, that it prompted producer Coke Daniels to create a thriller, titled, Karen, which is about “a racist woman” who “takes it as a personal mission to displace the new black family that just moved into the neighborhood,” according to the movie’s IMDb page.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.