Hipster Racism

Scott Hardie | April 30, 2012
Jezebel ran a great essay this weekend by Lindy West, on failed, insulting attempts to address racism with irony. I'm sharing it because I thought it was funny and smart, but I disagree that ironic racism is anything new. My friends and I adopted "word" and "what up" and other hip hop phrases despite growing up in the mostly white suburbs and listening to generic pop/rock. (Some of us still say them out of old habit. Ahem.) Other generations before us have done the same for much longer, I'm sure. Anyway, it's a funny read all the same.

Erik Bates | April 30, 2012
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Aaron Shurtleff | May 2, 2012
I am apparently not smart enough to understand this article. Pretty much what I got out of it was "If you are white, you are racist. The more you think you are not, the more you actually are." Maybe it's because, unbeknownst to me, I am actually the biggest racist I know. I thought the tone was more insulting than funny.

Scott Hardie | May 19, 2012
Several other people I shared it with, Aaron, had that reaction too. If it's not clear, I think the author's point that someone adopting the sayings or signals of another race in order to make a slight joke, such as a white kid talking black because he's trying to be funny about how not black he is, is racist and not funny at all. Agree or disagree; I think the essay is amusing and well-written.

One of the things about political correctness that I've never quite understood is the idea that offensive jokes aren't funny. Making light of someone's race or ethnicity or gender or anything else isn't appropriate because it hurts them and society; I don't make racist jokes and I don't like hearing them. But to say that a racist joke cannot be funny just because it's racist, that doesn't make any sense. That's like arguing that junk food can't possibly taste good because it's bad for your body.

Samir Mehta | May 19, 2012
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