I recently watched the six-part mini-series, The Thing about Pam. In a nutshell, it's about a woman who could get away with murder(s) while living her best life—with the full consent of societal norms. What did her best life look like? Well, it included being able to murder a friend, stealing the life insurance money from "said" murder, framing the victim's husband, manipulating the deceased friend's family, perhaps murdering her mother—and, oh yeah, attempting to murder another individual— [in my best Keith Morrison, Dateline voice].
As I watched that series, I began to think about all of the incidences of "Pam-like behavior" that we have all observed play out during these last two pandemic years. Please know that some of us have been watching this mess for decades; however, the pandemic finally allowed other folks to see the 'ish. Thanks, yawl. The world currently calls out these Pam-like privileges using the infamous Karen pejorative. Pam's actions and support systems vary little from those who have been able to get away with murder, attempted murder, character assassination, harassment, and many other foul indignations. 
Dr. Robin Hughes
Like Pam, these same individuals are allowed to wreak havoc and traumatize individuals because they have learned from experience that their actions are fully supported. They are both privileged and validated, and quite frankly, their actions are just plain old normal. In fact, on any given day, they can turn on televised news that often encourages, protects, and lauds what they do. So, while Pam and Karen live their best lives, including going on vacation, climbing mountains, doing yoga, getting their hair and nails "did," and buying property, they also get to map out a "to do" list which often includes getting in other folks' business and posing a threat when they feel a need to do so—which is daily. The Thing about Pam showed us all how effortless it was for Pam to live her best murderous life—all while guzzling down a daily 40 oz carbonated beverage from the local convenience store.
While not at all surprised, I was disgusted as I turned to no one in the room with me to say, "do you see this 'ish? Oh, never mind, I thought about our own workspace where the fragile engage in various forms of "The Thing about Pam" havoc." The complexities and complicities "reside" whether it be career-ending character assassination to actual life-ending traumas, there are no shortages of the self-appointed trauma-inducing overlords there to police, surveil and control specific individuals as part of their uncalled upon civic duty.
Further, as I watched this mini-series from my own Black lived experience and through a CRiT lens, I thought about how Black women live in the same space. That lived experience typically comes sans the normative calls for "safety" care and protection that we [Black women] hear exist. While Pam is co-constructed in this US social normative space as the fragile, civically minded do-gooder, who needs protection from life's ugliness, Black women are just darned resilient; bless our hearts.
Black women are "built"-through societal social constructions- to never think about framing the hard work that we all do, including both physical and/or mental labor, with any inkling of being safe or comfortable. The assumption is that Black women don't need safety and comfortability because we were "built" to be perpetually strong. When those superpowers fail, we can permanently supercharge through a good shot of resilience.
While I do not believe there to be malicious intentions [sometimes], such a description undermines Black women's intellect and places Black women at significant risks for all sorts of trauma and health-related issues. It signals a false narrative about "super powering" expectations for and about Black women. It imposes and demands that Black women expend significant mental and physical labor, inconsequential to what's best and typical for healthy living for any human. Above all, such a characterization blatantly suggests that Black women are "built" differently [see Tomika Ferguson's work on hyperfeminity and Black female athletes]. No medical attention is needed for the perpetual bot or superhuman.
