An elderly white woman became angry with her black neighbor after she refused to turn off her air conditioning.
A video posted to TikTok that has been viewed nearly 4 million times has a telling caption that sums up the absurdity of the request seen in the clip: “What it’s like to be a black woman living in a retirement community… Calling the cops because I have my air conditioner on.”
The video shows a neighbor approaching the resident through a door camera in the hope of being able to talk to him.
“Hi, how are you?” the white woman says into the camera’s intercom. “Yeah, I need to talk to you,” she continues.
An elderly white woman lost her patience with her black neighbor after she refused to turn off her air conditioning
The woman explains to the resident that the air conditioning has to be turned off because there is leakage in the houses below.
But the black tenant calmly tells her that she can’t do anything about it because she’s not home.
The situation escalates almost immediately when the white ‘Karen’ threatens to call the police to resolve the problem.
“Then I’m going to have to call the police to come out here because you were told not to turn on the air conditioning, but the air conditioning is on and the problem is in the unit downstairs,” the neighbor said.
White ‘Karen’ almost immediately escalates the situation when she threatens to call the police to resolve the issue
The black woman then explains that the air conditioning shouldn’t be working and that she spoke to her landlord about the problem.
Despite this, the white woman continues to argue with her neighbor, claiming that the air conditioning is on and that water is dripping on her house.
“How soon can you be here?” the white neighbor asks, to which the homeowner replies, “In 30 minutes.”
Unbelievably, the black woman, who had been out of sight the entire time, remained calm and even agreed to come back to her house to turn off the air conditioning.
Those who commented on the video were upset by what they saw.
“If I pay rent, no one will tell me not to run the air conditioning,” one user wrote.
“Why are most of the “Karens” retired??,” asked another. “It’s like they’re so bored they just go around and start things with people.”
‘I swear, retired Karens are the worst!!!! My Karen neighbor went through my trash to see if I threw away any recyclables,’ shared a third, sympathetic.