A confrontation in Florida between a Karen and a TikTok personality posted Thursday is getting attention for a few reasons. First, the conflict is over the woman stealing a sign that allegedly read “Flush Trump,” and the woman mysteriously has her license plate number covered.
The video, from self-described “comedian, actor and foster parent” Meechie Foxx (@meechiefoxx), and has earned more than 302,000 likes since being posted Thursday evening. It was shared to Reddit’s r/publicfreakout subreddit, garnering more than 13,600 upvotes within the first six hours of its posting on Friday. There, it was headlined, “Getting caught covering your license plate and stealing signs.”
Foxx shot the video Tuesday on his way to vote, captioning it, “On my way out to vote and I catch a Karen in the black community stealing signs!!!” The video appears to be shot in Lakeland, Fla., a Tampa suburb on the I-4 corridor nearly halfway between Tampa and Orlando.
It starts with Foxx yelling, “You come in our neighborhood, stealing our signs” at the Karen. She gets out of her car, saying, “Do not touch my car.”
“And then she has her tag covered up,” Foxx said, focusing on the Florida license plate on the back of her car, which appears to have white reflective plate covering the license plate number—though “Hillsborough” is visible at the bottom of the license plate.
(Much of the Reddit conversation around the video had to do with wondering about how severe a crime covering up one’s license plate was.)
She then motions to someone off camera, saying, “I need some help.” (The person she motioned to did not appear to acknowledge her request.)
She then apologizes, admitting to taking the sign. He asks her to put it back, and she agrees to do so. Foxx adds, “Because I’m getting ready to call the police.”
He then points out she’s coming over from a bordering county from Polk County, where the incident took place.
“You’re from Hillsborough County and coming down here, destroying the neighborhood that I grew up in.”
The Karen explained her motivation, telling Foxx that the sign “said ‘Flush Trump’.”
“That’s freedom of speech,” Foxx countered.
“It said, ‘Flush the turd.'”
“That’s freedom of speech,” he reiterated.
“That’s disrespecting the current president,” she said.
Foxx again made his freedom of speech point.
Though it hasn’t acquired the virality of the initial video, there’s a second video continuing the confrontation.
There, Foxx asks about her motivation, and why she’d travel the distance she did to take signs. The video then jumps to Lakeland police arriving on the scene, with the Karen explaining that the sign was on public property.
She also claimed that when Foxx confronted her, he asked, “Are you stealing that sign?” She then explained, “I said, ‘no,’ and then dropped it.”
What is a Karen?
The term “Karen” is a vast umbrella that’s taken on different meanings across internet culture. It’s chiefly understood to mean an entitled, often racist, white woman who has a public meltdown that spreads like wildfire across social media. Often, these incidents seem triggered when the Karen meets an unexpected barrier to the privilege of their day-to-day life. (For example, someone tells them they can’t enter a grocery store without a mask, and they respond by throwing produce.)
Men can be Karens, too, though efforts to dub them with a similar catch-all banner like “Ken” haven’t stuck. Critics say the term “Karen” marginalizes innocent IRL Karens and sanitizes racist, abusive behavior.