Twitter Can't Believe This H Mart 'Karen'
It has now been well over a year and change since protective face coverings (aka face masks) – and the endless debate regarding whether mask-wearing in public somehow violates American civil liberties — have embedded themselves into the American cultural vernacular. That being said, by the time around half of all Americans had received their full dose of the currently FDA-accepted COVID-19 vaccines (via Our World Data), mask talk had quieted significantly. The reason is that as the U.S. drew closer to what we believed at the time might evolve into "herd immunity" in spring, fewer and fewer stores, restaurants, and other businesses and organizations were asking the public to mask up.
As of today, however, with vaccination rates having plateaued — and the number of new infections among the unvaccinated and breakthrough infections among the vaccinated continuing to increase daily — an increasing number of businesses and organizations are now requiring their customers and other invitees to wear masks once again. Perhaps you're thinking, "Well, that's responsible of them." Or perhaps you're thinking, "Ugh, no! I don't wanna wear a mask anymore." Or more likely, it's some combination of the two that lead you to ultimately choose to wear a mask when on someone's premises who wants you to wear a mask. Because you're an adult.
Unless, of course, you're like this cranky "Karen"-type H Mart customer who Twitter can't believe decided to take their anti-mask activism to H Mart, and rather aggressively so.
The 'Karen' didn't stand a chance...
On August 7, the verified Twitter account Angry Asian Man posted a video that appears to have been taken while shopping at an H Mart store in Arcadia, Calif. In the video, which goes on for a full (cringeworthy) minute, a "maskless a*****e" (as the user described over text in the video) can be seen refusing to wear a mask and refusing to leave the H Mart premises, despite what appears to be a clear policy issued by H Mart management.
As much as we've all seen various iterations of this sort of confrontation, we still can't help but feel shocked and appalled when we witness them — particularly now that we've all been through this before. In fact, Twitter can't even believe the management-bullying, "Karen"-like behavior of the black-polo-wearing hot-head depicted in the video.
But what they could totally get on board with were the sassy "Ajummas" (that's Korean for a married or middle-aged woman) who stood up to the maskless bully and made them stand down. "No one wants you here," one yelled. "MVP: Ajumma ready to kick his a** while still holding a bunch of green onions," the original user commented. Is there a moral to this story? It might be as another Twitter user put it; "Do not f*** w/ asian aunties; they will tear you up." This "Karen" did not stand a chance, and the H in H Mart clearly stands for "not Having it."