Okay, I'm spamming

[la_vie_noire]

ciderpress talks about hipster racism, stereotypes, racism against East-Asian people and she links to a fucking awesome video

This is what happens when people steeped in white privilege make jokes about racism with the victims of racism, rather than the racists, the butt of the jokes. This is why people steeped in white privilege don't really know how to make "jokes" about race that non-white/chromatic/poc think are funny. This is what happens when apologists try to wave away critique of race issues in real life, in entertainment and pretend there isn't a problem, pretend it doesn't contribute to society, to culture, to our every day lives. Racist speech in the guise of jokes becomes okay. Racism becomes okay. The "Other Asian" joke is funny and okay because it shows what an awful human being Sue Sylvester is! Will Schuester's Other Asian "joke" is a call-back, we didn't even notice how dehumanising it is, Mr. Schu is a "good" guy being funny to show that he "gets it"! It's okay because it's "ironic", it's meta, the show itself treats him like "Other Asian" anyway, they don't say his name very often, he doesn't speak, has no means of recourse, even after the racist speech directed at him several times, he's just there to be the other Asian and fill the diversity quota, the character and the actors are totally okay with it!

Fucking Awesome Video:

And I have to thank her for linking this article: Hipster Racism. I wanted to share it a time ago, but lost it.

Hipster racism involves making derogatory comments with a racial basis in an attempt to seem witty and above it all. Specifically, the idea is to sound ironic, as in “I’m allowed to say this because of course I’m not racist, so it’s funny.” It’s an aspect of a larger part of the hipster culture, which wants to seem jaded and urbane and oh-so-witty. Using language which is viewed as inflammatory or not appropriate is supposed to push the boundaries and make someone look edgy, but it only really comes across that way to people who buy into that system. To everyone else, it’s just racist.

The thing about using racist content in an “ironic” context is that it still perpetuates racist ideas, and it is, in fact, racist. While people may ardently claim that they are not racist, the people who engage in hipster racism are overwhelmingly white and middle class, and they clearly have some unaddressed racial issues which are being subverted in their attempts to be edgy. Sometimes, they are actually explicitly racist, and they are using hipster racism as a way of presenting their racism in a way which will be acceptable within their social groups.

Hipster racism often hides under the unassailable guise of satire. People who suggest that something is racist, and not actually funny, are told that they obviously just don’t get it, and that the whole point of humour is to push boundaries. They are told that the racism is so obvious and overstated that it’s meant to be laughed at, and that people are laughing at the racism and the racists, not supporting the ideas which are supposedly being mocked. But, oddly enough, a lot of racist satire doesn’t read that way, and it ends up just being racist, full stop.