As Halloween approaches, some families enjoy decorating their yards or porches with jack-o-lanterns, spider webs, and anything scary to celebrate the spooky season. For the same reason, Prosser City in Washington held a Halloween display contest, which enraged some community members for some interesting reasons.
Karen-themed Halloween Display
As reported by the Tri-City Herald, Prosser city officials have taken down a Halloween contest display from City Hall that some residents deemed offensive, with some asserting it was directed at a specific community leader.
The aforementioned Halloween display features a scarecrow that stands among bushes of flowering plants. This scarecrow is dressed in a black t-shirt that reads "Can I speak to the manager," a line frequently uttered by people known as Karens on the Internet. Speaking of which, the scarecrow also has a nametag that says "Karen."
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Some residents, as it appears, did not find this display amusing and, in fact, found it to be offensive. City officials have since clarified that the display is not intended to offend anyone. According to reports, local city officials acknowledge that the display violated the true essence of the competition.
Also, according to the Tri-City Herald, a campaigning organization called Friends of Downtown Prosser contends the display was purposefully set up to mock one of their leaders. Furthermore, the group claimed that it was about the group's ongoing opposition to a $16.8 million deal to replace Prosser City Hall and Police Station.
The group noted in a statement that the scarecrow's black wig matched the color of their representative's hair.
"This past weekend, City Hall entered an annual Halloween decorating contest with a ghoulish scarecrow dressed up to look like me. Several people who understood the context behind the display immediately complained to the city," said the representative.
One 9GAG commenter responds, "Literally one of the most common hair colors, but yes, it was designed to match the hair color of the allegedly targeted person."
Mirror reports that the campaign group leader even mentioned that "Prosser City Hall engaged in targeted, public harassment of a private Prosser citizen on public grounds," and that people behind a display "created a grotesque effigy to publicly humiliate a city resident as retaliation for opposing a city bond proposal on the upcoming ballot."
"It's just unfortunate that some people decided it was targeted toward a resident," said City Manager Thomas Glover. "I believe it got out of hand."
Karens and Internet Slang
An Urban Dictionary definition with more than 28,000 likes tells us that Karens are middle-aged women who are typically blonde and "make solutions to others' problems an inconvenience to her although she isn't even remotely affected."
"Karens acted like Karens over a Karen display? No way!" said a comment shared by 9GAG, also adding, "The idea of people being self-aware enough to be offended by a Karen display but not seeing the irony in complaining to the city manager about it is amazing."
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