An ‘office Karen’ has come under fire over footage where she calls security on a black woman for using a bathroom in the office building where they both work.
The woman who was targeted posted a video last week of the unpleasant encounter at a law firm office in Buffalo, New York.
The woman, who goes by the username @top-cat716, recorded herself as she emerged from a bathroom in the building that she appears to have accessed without issue.
But as she walks out, a white woman in the hall, who seems to have been waiting for her, begins to speak.
‘Can I ask who you report to so I can call the law firm?’ asks the woman.
The woman filming asks why it’s an issue that she used this bathroom, to which she is told: ‘Because you need to stay on your floor bathroom.’
‘Why do I have to stay on my floor? Because of what?’ fires back the employee.
It appears to be the case that both women work for the law firm on different floors of the building.
‘Why would you not stay on your floor?’ asked the white woman.
‘I can use whatever bathroom I want to use. This is the law firm where I work,’ responded the woman as she continued recording.
The other woman then says she is going to call security, before opting instead to go downstairs and make an in-person report.
‘Please contact security. I work here. You sound stupid,’ @Top_cat716 called down the hall after her.
Viewers of the video, which has been watched 850,000 times, have thrown their support behind the woman who was called out.
Some encouraged her to continue using the bathroom on that floor.
Others wondered who appointed the other employee as ‘the bathroom police?’
Since the spring of 2020, recordings of white women confronting black people for what sometimes appears to be an arbitrary or inconsequential reason, have become a popular genre of online content.
These so-called ‘Karens’ are meant to illustrate the larger societal issue that is white people – and especially women – antagonizing black people by accusing them of minor or made up offenses and taking that opportunity to call law enforcement authorities.