'Kroger Karen' is going viral for using a stroller to block a Black woman from leaving a grocery store parking lot
- Shaneeka Montgomery-Strickland was attempting to exit a Kroger parking lot when an "irate" white customer, she says, stood behind her vehicle and refused to let her leave.
- The mother of three live-streamed the incident on Facebook, showing viewers how the white woman had positioned herself and a young child behind the bumper of the car.
- Eventually, police arrived on the scene and both women gave statements to officers.
- Montgomery-Strickland described the incident as "about the craziest thing" she'd ever experienced, pointing to racism as the cause of the encounter.
- Online commenters have now dubbed the white woman in the video "Kroger Karen."
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As social media posts capturing the problematic behavior of white women continue to circulate online, one Michigan woman has earned herself the online nickname "Kroger Karen" after standing behind a Black woman's car in a Kroger parking lot and blocking the fellow shopper from exiting the premises.
Shaneeka Montgomery-Strickland was grocery shopping with her three children at the Kroger in Livonia, Michigan on Saturday when a white woman (with a young child in tow) stood behind her vehicle and refused to let her leave the parking lot.
The confrontation, Montgomery-Strickland told FOX 2 Detroit, began inside the store when her son stepped on a shelf to reach a bottle of Gatorade. The other woman, upset by the boy's behavior, began yelling.
"It was irateness," she said of the shopper's mood.
The situation escalated in the parking lot when the woman, who was pushing a young girl in a stroller, approached Montgomery-Strickland a second time and called her a "b----."
Montgomery-Strickland began streaming the incident on Facebook Live — and the clip has stirred up outrage online.
"I have a woman standing behind my car telling me I cannot leave. This is ridiculous," she said in the video, panning over to the white woman standing next to the rear bumper of her vehicle. "I'm out here trying to do my job, me and my kids — do you see this lady? Standing here behind my car refusing to leave."
Montgomery-Strickland added that she'd called the police in an attempt to get the woman to leave.
"All this stuff going on out here protesting and everything and this is what this woman is doing," she said in the live-stream. "You cannot hold me here! You cannot hold me at a store!"
When police arrived on the scene, the woman quickly approached them and can be seen gesturing towards Montgomery-Strickland and her children, expressing her displeasure with being recorded.
In the remainder of the video, Montgomery-Strickland and a Kroger employee appeared to give statements to the police, and one officer can be heard saying "there's no law that's been broken, though" — although it's unclear whether the officer was referring to the blocking-in of the vehicle or the recording of the incident.
In a follow-up live-stream from her car, Montgomery-Strickland described the incident as "about the craziest thing [she'd] ever ever experienced," although she discouraged her sons from name-calling.
"I don't like how she talked to me, I don't like how she talked to my kids. And I refuse to shop in a place of business and have somebody act like that," she said in the video. "I hate that the kids had to see that, but now they see. They were, like, 'that lady is racist' and I say 'yeah, she is,' because there was no cause for it... She basically attacked us without putting her hands on us."
In just three days, the videos have been viewed thousands of times and racked up comments from viewers outraged by the latest "Karen's" behavior.
"Another Karen," one commenter wrote. "Literally losing their minds out there."
"White privilege is being able to storm up to an officer while he is getting out of his vehicle and vulnerable..." another wrote.
In the comments section, the mother of three added that she did not have the "Karen's" name, but personal information was included in the police report. She also claimed that the store's security guard stood outside "doing nothing" while the incident took place.
Montgomery-Strickland said that, despite the woman's objections, filming the incident was important.
This needs to be known. You can't just, like hush, hush about everything and keep on letting people get away with nonsense," she told FOX 2 Detroit. "I've gotten a lot of responses. People are very angry and upset about it because they say it makes no sense. What is wrong with people? Why are they still out here doing this after all that's going on, all the changes we're trying to make? After Black Lives Matter? It makes no sense."
Representatives for Kroger did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Read more:
How the name Karen became a stand-in for problematic white women and a hugely popular meme
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