Hipster Racism

HIPSTER RACISM:

I define “hipster bigotry” (I’m riffing on Carmen Van Kerckhove’s phrase of “hipster racism,” which she hipped me to recently) as ideas, speech, and action meant to denigrate another’s person race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or practices, size, ability, etc., under the guise of being urbane, witty (meaning “ironic” nowadays), educated, liberal, and/or trendy. Hipster racism is committed by folks who’d otherwise identify themselves, whether overtly or through signifiers, as liberal or progressive.

WHY IT WON’T GO AWAY:

Truth be told, they’re not even on the right side of hiring practices. Having the opportunity of working and Condé Nast and the New Yorker’s advertising and editorial floors (I temped as a receptionis there about a year ago), I noticed that there were no senior editors of color; the people of color in editorial capacities were already superstar writers before coming to the magazine (Malcolm Gladwell) or they were writing for the entertainment section (Hilton Als, who writes the theater column.) The former PR director, and African American woman, left the position. In other words, there’s no one of color to at least talk Remnick off the ledge of this kind of glib bigotry. (Not saying that having a person of color necessarily guarantees a firm commitment to anti-racism efforts–i.e. Vogue’s Andre Talley Leon and the recent cover of LeBron James and subsequent controversy–but I do hope for a slim chance.) And whichever white folks pride themselves on being anti-racist or at least race-tolerant at the magazine either didn’t get to Remnick in time or simply chose to shut up, duck from the mounting fallout, and/or get their excuses/alibis ready.

From A.J. Plaid at The Cruel Secretary and Racialicious