Comments About & Excerpts Of Articles About "Karen" & The "Raisins In Potato Salad" Memes

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides some comments and articles about "raisins in potato salad" memes.The original source for these memes includes the name "Karen", but that name doesn't have the "report people to the manager/police for trivial reasons and/or often racist reasons" that are core features of later "Karen" memes, particularly in 2020.

The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publisher of this embedded video on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-real-meaning-of-african-american.html for the closely related 2020 pancocojams post entitled  "The REAL Meaning Of The African American Phrase 'Invited To The Cookout' "
Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/04/tchalla-black-panther-karens-potato.html  for an April 2018 pancocojams post on this subject entitled "T'Challa (Black Panther) & Karen's Potato Salad (Saturday Night Live's "Black Jeopardy" )"

That pancocojams post includes additional comments from that YouTube video's discussion thread.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
I thought about this topic after reading tweets about how only a few people attended a performance by the United States Army Band at President Trump's 4th of July 2020 celebration in Washington, D.C. 

Here are the specific tweets that I'm referring to:
  

https://twitter.com/scottgairdner/status/1279573499367976960

[This twitter thread refers to an embedded video clip of the US Army Band singing Bruno Mar’s song “Uptown Funk” to an audience of empty lawn chairs  at Trump’s 4^th of July program in Washington D.C. July 4, 2020

Monica Vanzant

@MonicaVanzant

·

[July 5, 2020]

Replying to

@scottgairdner

"The part where they call for the audience and then turn the microphones to the empty chairs. . .THAT is really pathetic."
-snip-
“call for the audience to sing”

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annie tibeau

@annie_tibeau

[July 4, 2020]

Replying to

@scottgairdner

 and

@shortbread131

"That is a sad Republican picnic right there. What do they put in their potato salad?"

**

Matt Hill

@Files2Hill

[July 4, 2020]
"RAISINS"

**

Time Travelling Cook

@Cookinghistory

[July 5, 2020]

"I'm scottish, its the middle of the night and I keep reading about rasins in potato salad. WHAT?? Really? Do ppl do that? .... and people say Scottish food is weird! Winking faceWinking face

Not as weird as your president mind!"

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Black Jeopardy with Chadwick Boseman – SNL

Saturday Night Live, Apr 8, 2018

Shanice (Leslie Jones), Rashad (Chris Redd) and T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) compete on Black Jeopardy, hosted by Darnell Hayes (Kenan Thompson).

-snip-Statistics as of July 5, 2020 at July 5, 2020 10:53 AM EDT
Total # of views- 21,342,121
Total # of likes-319K
Total # of dislikes-8.8K
Total # of comments-17, 150
-snip-
Selected comments (with numbers added for referencing purposes only)

1. Bella S, 2018
"I’m white and I’m quite glad my family doesn’t fit the stereotype of white people not seasoning food or adding stuff like raisins because i can’t STAND bland food"

**
2. Alex, 2018
" "she will probably add something unnecessary like raisins" too real." ** REPLY 3.Huh?, 2020 "No white people I know put raisins in potato salad"

** 4. The DUMA Family, 2018 " "I sense that this white woman does not season her food" 😂"
** REPLY 5. Deadeye313, 2018 "Southern whites do that all the time. Like using cottage cheese in lasagna? I saw a commercial for that and was like "Wtf"? Or putting ketchup on Mac and cheese? Them people are crazy." ** REPLY 6. The DUMA Family, 2018 "haha to each it's own..... everyone's taste buds are different lol" ** REPLY 7. TheOLskool4ever, 2018 "Deadeye313 I can top that...saw a white woman make Mac & Cheese and used Frosted Flakes as a topping."...
** REPLY 8. Karen Li, 2018 "This is great; I'm Asian and I love soy sauce on everything. Why the hell would anyone put raisins in a potato salad?" ** REPLY 9. Steve Pringle, 2020 "You don't known what you are missing until you tried it with apples, craisins and walnuts."

**
10. Gabrielle Valentino, 2019
"As a white woman who has eaten bland white food in her life(as well as other ethnicities and glady took the pointers). I have to say thats accurate"

** 11. Barbara Danley, 2019 You should have my potato salad. Taters, dill pickles, finely diced onions, chopped hard boiled eggs, dressing with mayonnaise, mustard, pickle juice, salt & pepper. Delicious. ** REPLY 12. June Harris, 2020 "That's how I make my potato salad, but I also add white vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar to the recipe"
** 13. Glass Half Full, 2020 "A girl I knew once told me that her grandma used to bring her "famous jello salad" to every family gathering. The lime green jello was mixed in a bunt pan with mayonnaise or Miracle Whip, CANNED TUNA, RAISINS, chopped celery, chopped carrots, walnuts, peanut butter and cottage cheese. I think there were also chunks of pineapple. Have Mercy!"
**
14. SaudaraLink, 2020
"I'm white and I thought that was funny."

** 15. TBustah, 2020 "My mother puts raisins in coleslaw.. why? I don’t like the stuff to begin with, but it’s even less tolerable with fruit in it." **

16. Jean Jasmin,  2020

"All the dislikes are from white women named Karen who put raisins in their potato salad"

**
17. Garret Wright, 2020
"As a white person who makes food, it is true. We white people need to learn how to season our food properly." **
18. Ms Tiffany, 2020

"Adding raisins and carrots to potato salad, apples to chicken salad and pecans to sweet potatoes canceled my attendance (hungry) to some dinner offers"

**
19. Class Clown, 2020

"So racist.  Cancel SNL now!

**
20. 5x7m, 2020

CLASSIC!!!😂

**
21. Vera theBanana, 2020
"As a white girl, the potato salad thing is too accurate"

**
22. Bzenga, 2020 ""Karen" emerged as a Black Twitter meme after the SNL potato salad sketch"

**
23. Celtic Batman "Karens are still a pain in the ass in 2020"

**
24. john colambo, 2020
"all them 8k Karens would like "i wish to talk snl's manager!" -snip- This comment probably jokingly assumes that all the dislikes came from women named "Karen". However, the name "Karen" in this 2018 Black Jeopardy sketch doesn't have the same negative, self-entitled, and often racist connotations as the 2020 "Karen" memes. Read my editorial note below.

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ARTICLE EXCERPT ABOUT "KAREN" & THE "RAISIN IN THE POTATO SALAD" MEME
From https://www.salon.com/2019/07/04/crimes-against-potato-salad-how-not-to-get-un-invited-from-the-cookout/ "Crimes against potato salad: How not to get uninvited from the cookout- To some, potato salad is a picnic's hot poison. To black folks, it's a soul food staple you best not mess up" by Melanie McFarland,  July 4, 2019

…."To explain the hostility toward raisins in potato salad, and the assumption that this is a white people thing, credit T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda. Mind you, black folks have made jokes about white people putting raisins in their potato salad long before April 2018, when “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman appeared in character on “Saturday Night Live” as a player on Black Jeopardy. There the Wakandan king competes against Americans Shanice and Rashad and quickly discovers he is, shall we say, unaccustomed to the realities of being a person of African descent in America.

But the pivotal moment for T’Challa comes when he chooses the category "White People" for $400.

The answer: “Your Friend Karen Brings Her Potato Salad to Your Cookout”.

“I think I’m getting the hang of this,” T’Challa says. “Before I answer, a few questions. This woman Karen — she is Caucasian, neh? And she has her own recipe for potato salad, neh? Ah, I understand.”

“It is noble that she would volunteer to cook for everyone,” T’Challa continues. “And although I have never had potato salad, I sense that this white woman does not season her food. And if she does, it is only with a tiny bit of salt. And no paprika. And she would probably add something unnecessary, like raisins. So something tells me that I should say: ‘Aw hell naw, Karen, keep your bland ass potato salad to yourself!’”

You gotta feel for the Karens of the world. They are legion, and as the Black Panther points out, they’re only trying to contribute to the potluck. (Trick statement, Karen: in this situation, you are at a cookout, not a potluck.) On the other hand, it’s unlikely that they’ve ever been subjected to the cultural pressure of making a crowd-pleasing potato salad, let alone one for an audience that will read you to your face and won’t let you live down your failure for years afterward.

“African Americans are very serious about potato salad,” soul food scholar and author Adrian E. Miller told Salon. “I'm not sure how that particular side dish became so totemic at black cookouts, but it can make or break one's reputation as a cook.

[…]

There are many ways to make potato salads, but only a few ways to really get it right. This is why to some people, the dish is one of the also-rans of summertime eating.

Hence the frequent sight latecomers often encounter at picnics and outdoor potlucks of a table strewn with remains of tough burgers and leathery hot dogs, the miserable remains of a veggie platter, the scrapes and dregs of condiments. And then you’ll see it -- the nearly full, basically untouched tub of grocery store goop, somebody’s well-meaning offering transformed by the summertime sun into a bacterium orgy in a bucket.

This is true of just about every function, except for black folks’ cookouts and church functions, hosted and contributed to by people know how to cook. Show up late to those events, and the potato salad is likely to be gone.

[…]

But here is what my tongue remembers and my heart knows to be true about soul food potato salad: It’s yellow and just the right amount of creamy. Ingredients include mayo — or, just as likely, Miracle Whip — a good quality mustard, hard boiled eggs and enough paprika present to resemble flecks of red-orange fireworks in a golden sky. Relish too, and celery in amounts adequate to provide a playful crunch in the midst of tubers cooked to a place between firm and soft, nothing more, nothing else.

That, friends, is American potato salad. No other version need apply to my gatherings.

Also, never forget this  — never add any raisins. Ever.

None of this is meant to intimidate you out of making potato salad for a summer gathering or for someone else’s (if they asked you to) because while the margin for error is slim, the reward for success is great.

For the best recipe, ask a church lady.

That’s a joke, because no self-respecting church lady at the top of her potato salad game is going to give up her receipts. (Church ladies have the same feelings about their pound cake recipes, FYI. Don’t waste your breath. I have tried.)

But as Boseman explains to a reporter at a junket to support “The Avengers,” the job of bringing the potato salad to the family cookout has to be earned.”…
-snip-
This article continues with two basic recipes for “Black American style” potato salad.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE ABOUT THE USE OF THE NAME "KAREN" IN BLACK JEOPARDY'S "RAISIN IN THE POTATO SALAD" SKETCH
A portion of the April 7, 2018 Saturday Night Live's "Black Jeopardy" sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzMzFGgmQOc  starring Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa [Black Panther] included a reference to a White woman named "Karen". However, this use of the name "Karen" for a White woman doesn't have the negative self-entitled or racist connotations that have been given to other uses of the name "Karen".

In the sketch, Kenan Thompson, in character as the host, reads a card from the category “White People” that says, “Your friend Karen brings her potato salad to your cookout.” T’Challa responds, “I sense that this white woman does not

season her food.” He continues, “Something tells me that I should say, ‘Aw, hell no naw, Karen! Keep your bland-ass potato salad to yourself!’ " https://variety.com/video/chadwick-boseman-snl-potato-salad-joke/ The core difference between this depiction of the White woman named "Karen" and other depictions of White women named "Karen", particularly in 2020, Karen" is that the female name "Karen" in that Black Jeopardy sketch is described as a "Black man's White friend". Presumably, she is a that Black man's non-romantic female friend, such as a co-worker. In contrast, in most of the later "Karen" memes that include Black men and/or other People of Color, the White woman named "Karen" is adversarial toward those people who she doesn't even know. Black Jeopardy's "raisin in the potato salad" sketch resulted in a new internet meme. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/raisin-potato-salad explains this meme as "Raisin Potato Salad is an internet slang term to describe unnecessary actions taken by white people, usually adding their spin on examples of black popular culture."

-end of quote-

I disagree with that interpretation of that meme. Instead, I believe the "raisins in potato salad" meme is all about Black Americans' belief that -in general- we are better cooks than White people and (even more specifically) that the food that White people cook or prepare is often bland, and often contains ingredients and/or seasonings that Black Americans consider unnecessary, strange, and off-putting.

That the White woman in that 2018 Black Jeopardy sketch is named "Karen" may have been a coincidence as "Karen" was/is often considered a "White" female name, That said, I grew up in the 1950s with a Black girl named "Karen", and since then I've known one Black women named "Karen", including one who spelled that name "Caren". I'm sure that there are still a lot of Females of Color who share the name "Karen" with White females. And I'm also sure that there are many White females named "Karen" who aren't self-entitled and/or racist- and some of those women probably know how to prepare a delicious bowl of potato salad- without raisins.  

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