An “Instagram influencer” (i.e. a rich woman who takes a lot of selfies) was at the center of controversy this week when she got into a heated argument with Lebron James during a Los Angeles Lakers vs. Atlanta Hawks game in Atlanta. Juliana Carlos, who had courtside seats next to her husband, claimed in a video after the spat that Lebron called her a “f***ing b*tch.” Carlos returned the favor, calling Lebron a “f***ing p***y” along with a host of other choice terms. There is no evidence that the NBA star actually said what he is accused of saying, and Carlos has since issued an apology and claimed full responsibility for the episode.
Lebron has had little to say about all of this publicly, except to tweet: “Courtside Karen was MAD MAD!!” The Courtside Karen moniker quickly caught on, started trending on Twitter, and now most of the media headlines about the story use that nickname in reference to Carlos. This has been the trend for the past year or so. Obnoxious white women — or white women who are labeled obnoxious, fairly or not — are called “Karen,” sometimes with an additional identifier like “Courtside” or “Soho.” A culture that finds nearly everything “problematic” has somehow found no problems with this.
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