THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF “HIPSTER RACISM.” Only bad people are racist. Hipsters are inherently good. Therefore, hipster racism is inconceivable. Plus, comparing charges of racism to McCarthyism.
UPDATE: A reader emails:
If you use this, please don’t use my name.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s noticed this phenomenon. Here in Nashville, we have a neighborhood called “East Nashville” that is filled with hipster racism. White twenty- and thirty-somethings move in to the neighborhood where $400,000 houses sit across the street from cinder-block four-plexes, and down the street from some of the most violent projects in Nashville. The white kids love, love to talk about how morally superior they are to those of us who moved to the suburbs to escape Nashville’s failing schools because they live in a “diverse” neighborhood. And they say this while sitting next to their Prius that has bumper stickers that say “Over the river and through the hood” or “We’ll steal your heart…and your lawnmower.”
None of them know the names of their black neighbors, and those neighbors are never invited to any of the parties these kids have. I have always gotten a sense that they have the attitude that because they live “in the hood” they can say whatever they want. They have paid for their indulgences by living in the proper zip code.
The thing to remember about race-talk in contemporary America is that it’s mostly a status/power thing among various groups of white people. Any actual benefit to any actual minority groups is coincidental.
UPDATE: Boy they’re really down on the hipsters in East Nashville. Another reader writes:
Anonymous here too if you use it.
Ooohhh the smug moral superiority coming from the East Nashville hipsters is nauseating. Their Priuses and their bumper stickers and their houses that cost more than I will ever be able to afford which gives them a ten minute commute makes them much better people than the rest of us. Just ask them, they’ll tell you.
Ouch. Clearly East Nashville needs much higher property taxes. As a matter of fairness.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Another reader writes: “Thirty year resident of East Nashville here. Regarding those ‘37206 – Over the river and through the hood’ bumper stickers, I want one that says ‘37206 – I liked it better before you moved here.’ And yes, our mayor is asking for a property tax increase.” If you could tax smugness, the fiscal crisis would be solved.