Hipster racism

Hipster racism is engaging in behaviors typically regarded as racist and defending them as being performed ironically or satirically. Rachel Dubrofsky and Megan W. Wood have described it as being supposedly "too hip and self-aware to actually mean the racist stuff one expresses". This might include wearing blackface and other performances of stereotyped African Americans, use of the n-word, and appropriating cultural dress. Talia Meer argues that hipster racism is rooted in what she calls "hipster exceptionalism", meaning "the idea that something ordinarily offensive or prejudiced is miraculously transformed into something clever, funny and socially relevant, by the assertion that said ordinarily offensive thing is ironic or satirical." As Leslie A. Hahner and Scott J. Varda described it, "those participating in acts of hipster racism understand those acts as racist when practiced by others, but rationalize their own racist performances through a presumed exceptionalism."

History

Carmen Van Kerckhove coined the term hipster racism in the article "The 10 Biggest Race and Pop Culture Trends of 2006", citing "Kill Whitey" Parties and "Blackface Jesus" as examples. "Kill Whitey" parties, as described by The Washington Post, were parties held for hipsters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, by Jeremy Parker, a disc jockey who goes by the name The Pumpsta, in an attempt to "kill the whiteness inside". These were parties in which white hipsters mocked the black hip-hop industry, and essentially a part of African-American culture, for the sake of irony. Van Kerckhove also regarded the use of blackface by white people and the normalization and acceptance of such use from other individuals as hipster racism. Van Kerckhove contends, quoting Debra Dickerson, that the use of blackface by individuals such as these was an effort to satirize political correctness and racism.

Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times characterized the appropriation of cultural artifacts as fashion without recognizing the significance of the article as hipster racism. Examples include wearing Native American headdresses, or more specifically, Urban Outfitters selling clothes with Navajo and other Aboriginal and African tribal prints without giving tribute, acknowledgement, or compensation. Television producer Lena Dunham was described as a hipster racist when Dunham issued a statement defending a male colleague who was accused of rape by a woman of mixed race.

See also

• Hipster sexism
• Nipster
• Irony

References

Bibliography

• Current, Cheris Brewer; Tillotson, Emily (2015). "Hipster Racism and Sexism in Charity Date Auctions: Individualism, Privilege Blindness and Irony in the Academy". Gender and Education. 30 (4): 467–476. doi:10.1080/09540253.2016.1216952. ISSN 1360-0516. S2CID 151341931.
• Dubrofsky, Rachel E.; Wood, Megan M. (2014). "Posting Racism and Sexism: Authenticity, Agency and Self-Reflexivity in Social Media". Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. 11 (3): 282–287. doi:10.1080/14791420.2014.926247. ISSN 1479-4233. S2CID 146553518.
• Hahner, Leslie A.; Varda, Scott J. (2014). "Yarn Bombing and the Aesthetics of Exceptionalism". Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies. 11 (4): 301–321. doi:10.1080/14791420.2014.959453. ISSN 1479-4233. S2CID 146896122.
• Threadgold, Steven (2018). Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles. Abingdon, England: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-53285-9.

Further reading

• Greene, Viveca S. (2012). Irony & Ideology: Oppositional Politics and Cultural Engagement in Post–September 11th America (PhD dissertation). Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• Oluo, Ijeoma (13 February 2015). "Uncomfortable Fact: Hipster Racism is Often Well-Intentioned". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
• Pérez, Raúl; Greene, Viveca S. (2016). "Debating Rape Jokes vs. Rape Culture: Framing and Counter-Framing Misogynistic Comedy". Social Semiotics. 26 (3): 265–282. doi:10.1080/10350330.2015.1134823. ISSN 1470-1219. S2CID 147122961.
• Plaid, A. J. (14 July 2008). "The New Yorker and Hipster Racism". Racialicious. Archived from the original on 17 July 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2017.