The latest showdown in the canon of “Karen” confrontations happened in a Houston parking garage. A Black man found himself under surveillance by a white woman who had appointed herself guardian of a 15-minute parking zone.
According to a video he later shared on Instagram, the woman informed him, “This is 15-minute parking.” She added that he had overstayed by three or four minutes. The revelation made viewers wonder, how did she know? Had she been timing him?
“So do you think I need checking up on minutes?” the driver shot back in the clip. “I’m grown. I know how to count.” But then, instead of escalating, the man said, “Have a blessed night. Thank you, beautiful.”
He drove off after this, but she stood there silently.
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Social media users dubbed the Black man’s reaction as “Jedi mind trick” and “nice-nasty.”
One wrote, “She couldn’t even rebuttal.” Another added, “Now this is an (…) emotionally intelligent response. They expect you to lash out and this brother so eloquently gathered her.”
“Y’all did not need to soften that Karen with the ‘beautiful,’” one commenter scolded, though. Another questioned why he engaged at all.
But the overwhelming consensus was that kindness had done its job. We also find the hashtag #MindYourBusiness in the caption of this reel, as many Black people are frustrated when strangers police their presence in public spaces.
Such “Karen” memes usually feature white women who call out Black people in everyday settings. Apryl Williams, a communication and media professor at the University of Michigan, unpacked the phenomenon during a 2021 discussion at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center.
She explained, “A lot of those same ideologies from the slave days really underlie these (…) practices.” The memes help communities to process what can otherwise be traumatic.
When you have defeated all of the Karens and are now up against the final Boss Karen. pic.twitter.com/s5OAJ3PXjo
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) November 30, 2024
On the other hand, in 2025, a viral video in Pinole, California, showed a woman repeatedly using racist slurs in a parking lot. City officials later said the case was being investigated as a “hate incident.” So yes, these situations can spiral.
