What’s in a Name?

To the Editor:

Each time I see the name “Karen” used as an insult, I think about the lady down my street with that name. The sweet lady who buys plants and leaves them at our gate, who goes out of her way to drop a little bit of color into our lives with some flowers.

I don’t want to be part of the movement that continues turning that lady’s name into something negative. Most people probably don’t realize they’re helping do that, but every time it’s used, the insult gains a bit more credibility, as is the way of things. The more it’s talked about, the more real it becomes, no matter if it’s true or not.

Nowadays, the name Karen has become an insult. It has been more and more often attributed to the person, usually a white woman who goes to the manager and complains about insignificant things. The woman who causes trouble in the grocery store. The woman who is annoying and shallow, who will pick on anything that is less than perfect.

America specifically has taken a name that means pure, and turned it into a closed insult that reflects on ugliness, rudeness, and a mean temper, (talk about racism and discrimination when we’re all Americans here, we Americans of all colors are all endowed by our creator with the same unalienable rights).

Many will say nobody cares. The people named Karen will understand it’s just a joke. But when is an insult suddenly fine to use if it’s done jokingly?

Luke 6:31 of the King James Version of the Bible reads, “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

If your name were to become a new insult that embodied many bad qualities such as rudeness, nitpicking, and anger, would you feel upset with the people who made it up? Wronged? Treated unfairly because your precious, personal name had been turned into something bad?

Would you be fine with a large number of people assuming your name as a new insult and tossing it around on social media platforms, through emails, through text messages, and becoming a meme that millions, maybe billions, would see? And those things never truly go away, so you can count on it being around for decades to come.

Would you feel no remorse if you are one of the people who has used the name Karen this year, and now are on the receiving end of your name becoming the new Karen?

I certainly would. And it’s because of this that I feel not only moved, but obligated to not use this trend, to stand against it, to make my objection to it be known. If Abigail meant that angry man or woman who set the fast-food worker stuttering over their words to make sure the order is perfect, if Abigail meant the person at the store who had no respect for the cashiers and left rudeness and hate in their wake, I would hope, I would pray, that someone else would be standing with me.

I hope not only people who have the name, but people who recognize their words mean something, that insults are not jokes, and that names are beautiful and precious-not to be used as insults-would also stand against the trend, because we are all human, because none of us deserve to have our names dragged through the dirt for the entertainment of others.

Abigail Joanna

West Point