A Tennessee woman sparked outrage online after berating two teens for their Pride street art and attempting to paint over it.
The Karen can be seen in a series of videos posted by one of the teens on Instagram. The clips have a collective view count of 26,000.
The teen captioned the first video, “we spray painted pride flags on the bridge and then this karen came and harassed us and called me and my girl immigrants and proceeded to paint over our work.”
The Karen approached the girls and their street art saying, “I’m coming over here to paint over your shit.”
She accused the couple of trying to “just stand out” and told them “y’all ain’t even different anymore.” She said she could “give a shit” about who they were and what they did, but they weren’t allowed to “go express it all over everything.”
Many viewers were disgusted and disappointed.
One person commented, “This is fucked. The nerve of some people man.”
Another said, “I can’t believe this happened in my town… You deserve to paint whatever you want and love whoever you want. I am so sorry!”
Subsequent videos appear to show the Karen continuing to verbally harass the teenagers as she spray painted white over their Pride flag art. She stated she was going to paint an American flag over their work.
She said she has “more damn right” to spray paint on the street than the teenagers did because she is a self-proclaimed tax-paying grown woman with two children.
The whole time, the teenagers stand by and talk to her, allowing the Karen to paint over their art work.
In an interview with WBIR after the initial incident, one of the girls said: “We wanted people to know they’re not alone. When I was in middle school I would have loved to see these flags and see all these people supporting us.”
The teens showed their original work in a later follow-up post, which was met with positive support.
“I’m so sorry your beautiful bridge was painted over by an ugly monster! I hope you try again! I’ll chip in for the paint,” one user said.
Other posts show the redone street art painted over a second time with the words “pray for our country” and “proud to be an American.”
They said in another follow-up post, “We’re going to be there tomorrow morning to fix it once again.”
The teens did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.
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