I don’t agree with every sentence of former Stranger Film Editor Lindy West’s critique of “hipster racism,” but the piece packs a few very salient punches, and Lindy’s ability to say smart, serious things in a funny, unserious way always impresses me.
Racism is like a wily little bacterium. It doesn’t just roll over and die once we swallow our antibiotics—it mutates and evolves and hides itself in plain sight, and then all of a sudden, fuck, my arm fell off. Dickhead bacteria. (Sidenote: arm for sale!)
A long time ago (not really!), it was socially acceptable to own people. Then it wasn’t, but it was socially acceptable to murder people if they looked at your wife. Then it wasn’t! Yay! But it was still okay to say that people whose skin color you didn’t like weren’t allowed to be around you. And so on. Eventually we arrived at the point (now) where it’s socially unacceptable in mainstream culture for white people to say denigrating things about people of other races. But just because the behavior has been suppressed, that doesn’t mean people’s prejudices have simply disappeared. And white people haaaaaate being told what to do in our own country (fun fact: not actually “ours”)!
So racism went underground. Sure, you can’t say racist things anymore, but you can pretend to say them! Which, it turns out, is pretty much the exact same thing. There are a couple of strains of “ironic racism” making the rounds right now, and a couple of typical defenses.
My favorite:
4. “God, Don’t White People Suck?”
Okay, I get what you’re trying to do here—having some fun at the expense of the oppressors while setting yourself up as one of the “cool” white people—but mainly what you end up doing is implying that black people don’t like informative radio or TED talks. Stuff White People Like: having the best brains! Isn’t it great that we can make fun of ourselves while still reminding you that we’re better than you?And the thing is, when these things get called out, there really is no defense. But they try:
“No, don’t you see? I’m just showing how I’m so down with [minority group] that it’s totally cool for me to make jokes at their expense. Because we are just that kind of tight bros now.”
No. You cannot unlock some secret double-not-racist achievement by just being regular racist. Otherwise Bill O’Reilly would be president of the NAACP.
EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. E. V. E. R. Y. T. H. I. N. G.
I WAS SAD WHEN LINDY LEFT THE STRANGER, BUT GODDAMN… SHE’S GOTTEN EVEN MORE AWESOMER IN LOS ANGELES.
Yeah. She kind of nails this one. I like that she acknowledges it’s something you work on. Racism is not something that lives in a binary state.
Someone needs to put the kibosh on her excessive use of parenthesis–it’s irritating and detracts from what would otherwise be an enjoyable and fairly well-argued piece. I realize it’s Jezebel, but STILL, C’MOOOOOON!
It’s hard to work up much concern about something like a celebrity making fun of herself by writing “#thuglife” in a Twitter update while elsewhere people are actually dying, imprisoned, living in misery, or under attack due to deep, institutionalized racism, which is far more difficult to be hip and witty about. Write what you know, I guess, Lindy, but I’m not sure the indignation and quasi-rhetorical style mix well with your great style of humor, which I used to enjoy immensely in your movie reviews in the Stranger.
Self-righteousness is a wily lil’ bacterium, too.
Lindy West’s film criticism is unimpeachable, but her blue state Puritanism is about as rank, pointless and devoid of humor as a turd on the sidewalk in 90-degree heat. Or actually, I take that last part back: a turd on the sidewalk would be much funnier than Lindy’s populist moral pandering
I hesitate to accuse author West of straw man reliance for I am aged and perhaps run in different circles than the H-word racists she’s described. But my circle is not THAT different. And due to my age I feel comfortable enough in the breadth of my social experience to say I have no fucking clue who these people are and where they exist except as archetypes in print. And also due to my age I recognize her masterful employment of some ultra-thick, mid to late 90’s snark, the kind you don’t see much of these days. She’s a real throw-back.
@7: I agree. I think she kind of acknowledges the straw man issue when she addresses her target as “imaginary amalgam of all the careless hipsters in the world.” I’m not sure what’s specifically “hipster” about the behavior being described — and perhaps the whole thing was just a vehicle for a glancing shot at Zooey Deschanel’s character. Like geyser, I’m having a hard time caring.
It’s a real problem if you don’t know who the object of your extended polemic is. But she is right that ironic racism, or sexism for that matter, isn’t funny and is offensive.
There’s few things that annoy me more than white people accusing other white people of being more racist than they are. It’s largely self-serving and accomplishes nothing.
And her #4 example didn’t even make sense.
White-guilt libtard “progressive advocacy journalism” dogshit.
I LIKE A LOT OF LINDY’S WRITING, BUT THIS ONE WAS JUST WILDLY HYPOCRITICAL, AS SHE DISPLAYED THROUGH HER COMMENTS THE EXACT HIPSTER RACISM SHE WAS TEARING DOWN.
How did she miss the fact that this post makes her seem like everything that she is decrying?
OREGOMETRY: I MISSED THE PART WHERE LINDY WAS BEING ACTIVELY RACIST IN HER WRITING. COULD YOU QUOTE THE PARTS YOU THINK WERE BEING RACIST?
Lindy makes jezebel worth reading again. I read everything she writes and it all makes me laugh hard.
Also, after I wrote that Wanderlust review and then it bombed, I felt like a huge idiot, and then I read Lindy’s review and it was pretty much the same as mine (except way better) and I then I felt like a straight-up winner.
Northern racism. Lindy nailed it!
TREATING RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AS THE SAME THING. ONE CAN ONLY RECREATIONALLY GO SLUMMING IN BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS?
Northern racism. Lindy participated in it!
@OREGOMETRY: WHERE IN THE TEXT DID YOU SEE THAT ACTUALLY TAKE PLACE. PLEASE USE QUOTES SO THAT I CAN ACCURATELY UNDERSTAND WHICH OF THE PIECES OF TEXT YOU’RE REFERRING TO.
We’re talking about it. It’s been re-posted all over FB. Largely intelligent conversations about race are happening. I think West accomplished something good with this. Conversation on the topic is never a bad thing, imo. Racism likes to hide in plain site, and thrives when un-challenged.
+1 Fruit Cup
Laughing at hipsters who react vehemently to the use or mention of the word. And yes bloggers, that is directed at you. As to her point, yeah, I can’t disagree but as someone else pointed out self righteousness is not a good trait
People that cry racism the most are dividing this country down the middle. Especially when pasty white claptraps start lecturing people on racism. Liberals have also hyphenated names. African-American. Asian-American. Here’s a tip. If you were fucking born here. You are an AMERICAN. Also, feminist morons hyphenate their names. What a fucking stupid idea. Oh my…..my fuck trophy won’t know his true identity if he’s not in touch with his feminine side. Whatever. It’s the end of the world as we knew it. And liberals are fucking dumb.