Arizona 'Karen' seen getting slapped for telling Hispanic woman to 'go back to Mexico' in viral video
PHOENIX, ARIZONA: A confrontational video of two women at a gas station in Phoenix has gone viral after resident Greg Conn, who also shot the video, shared it on his Facebook page. "Racism is alive and well, this just happened at the shell gas station in Phoenix, Greenway and 7th st," Conn captioned the video.
At the start of the video, the woman, who Conn described as a 'Karen' — an internet term generally used to describe a white woman who is entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is considered appropriate or necessary — can be seen telling the Hispanic woman to leave because "we will not be serving you". "Black Lives Matter, b****,' the Hispanic woman says as the confrontation begins to escalate. At this point, 'Karen' appears to get annoyed that she's being filmed and confronts Conn by telling him this was none of his business. "You need to leave, you are not a part of this," she tells him.
Conn went on to describe the incident in detail on his Facebook page: "I was checking out and this lady comes into the store all flustered yelling at the clerk because the line was getting long and her pump wasn’t working. Another clerk came out and she said to the young lady in the video, she can go checkout in an authoritative manner. The young lady said 'thank you but I don’t need your assistance'. She was clearly annoyed with the lady like everyone else in the store. At this time, the lady told the clerk not to serve her, told her she can leave, and 'go back to her country'."
You can check the video here:
In the video, when 'Karen' is asked if she's the manager and why she suggested that the Hispanic woman should "go back to her country", she ignores the question and continues to tell the clerk to not serve other customers. She then proceeds to go back to the counter and continues arguing with the Hispanic woman before asking her "where she was born". When the woman replies she was born in America, she tells her, "go back to Mexico".
The pair then start yelling at each other before 'Karen' seemingly loses her temper and shoves the woman. This led to immediate retaliation, with the other woman slapping her across the face. The woman is then seen walking out of the store, shaking her head in dismay, with Conn telling her that she "deserved it" for initiating the confrontation.
The news comes just weeks after a similar story emerged from New York City, where 57-year-old African-American Christian Cooper filmed Amy Cooper, 41, launching a racist tirade at him in Central Park. Christian had politely asked Amy to leash her dog, but she had refused and threatened to call the police on him. When he had invited her to "please call the cops," she had responded, "I'm going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life."
The video went viral, with New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio condemning Amy and stating that such behavior had "no place in our city." It also resulted in Amy losing her job as head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton, and receiving death threats on social media.