Victoria’s Secret ‘Karen’ Filmed Chasing Woman Through Store
A “Karen” has been filmed chasing a Black woman through a Victoria’s Secret store in New Jersey.
Clips of the bizarre incident, uploaded to YouTube, showed a white woman apparently running after a Black woman, who later identified herself as Ijeoma Ukenta.
The video starts with the white woman seemingly coming towards her and raising her hand as if to smack Ukenta, before the camera pulls away.
Seconds later, the woman, seeing she is being recorded, moves away. She holds her head in her hands and crouches down, appearing to cry.
Ukenta then said: “I never thought nothing like this would ever happen to me. She just tried to run and hit me.”
“No, I didn’t,” the woman cried in response.
A second video showed the white woman shaking on the floor, shrieking and pleading with Ukenta to stop recording her.
Shortly afterward, the woman apparently ran towards Ukenta and chased her around the store, again shouting at her to stop recording.
The term “Karen” comes from memes about white middle-class white women behaving in what is considered a privileged way.
In many of the memes, the white woman demands to “speak to the manager” or makes complaints about Black people, including to the police.
Ukenta later identified the woman in a video uploaded to YouTube, when she showed what she said was a police report of the incident.
She also set up a GoFundMe page that she called “Help me defend myself against Karen.”
Ukenta wrote on the fundraiser: “I am a Black Muslimah Nigerian AM and I was treated like it was 1920 in Short Hills Mall. I was assaulted and harassed by a white woman and nothing was done by security nor the police.
“I am looking to hire me an excellent attorney who can help me bring light to this wrong. All videos and updates on the situation are on my YouTube channel: Mama Africa Muslimah.”
Ukenta added: “I was kicked off a TikTok for posting what happened to me and they let someone else post and get millions and millions of views, however, they deleted 2 of my accounts. One that I have for my Garden which was my original account and another one that I created after I deleted my account.”
By Tuesday morning, the GoFundMe had raised more than $28,000, smashing its $20,000 target.
In a statement sent to Newsweek, Millburn Police Department in New Jersey said: “On Saturday, July 10, at about 12:45 p.m., two Millburn police officers responded to a call from a woman who was involved in a confrontational dispute with another woman while both were shopping at the Victoria’s Secret store in the Short Hills Mall. The two women apparently did not know each other prior to the incident.
“The Millburn Police Department has opened an investigation in this matter and is waiting to receive video footage from the store which is expected very soon.
“Upon arriving, the officers first spoke with the woman who had called the police, which is standard procedure in cases like this. She was very emotionally distraught and told the officers that she was having a ‘panic attack’ because the other woman was videoing the dispute on her cellphone. She told officers that she was concerned that she would lose her job if the video was released to the public.”
The statement continued: “The officers then spoke to the other woman involved who said that she was videoing the matter to protect herself from false accusations. She told the officers that the first woman had ‘lunged at her’ and attempted to strike her unsuccessfully. She did not allege that she was actually struck at any time.
“Several other individuals present, including store employees, said that they did not see anyone being physically struck at any time.
“The second woman who was videoing much of the incident asked the officers to remove the first woman from the mall because she felt threatened. The officers explained they did not have the authority to do that because they had no indication that an arrestable offense or crime had been committed.”
The police statement added that Ukenta told police on July 12 that she would file a complaint, but no complaint had yet been received.
No disciplinary action has been taken against any of the officers involved and no arrests have been made.The investigation continues.
Newsweek has contacted Ukenta for comment. Newsweek also attempted to reach out to the woman in the video, but could not find any active contact information for her.
Update 7/14/21, 5:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add a statement from Millburn Police Department.
YouTube/Ijeoma Ukenta
