I've been reading the conversations surrounding The AV Club's Our "white people problems"problem, and Jezebel's Complete Guide to Hipster Racism , trying the tie the two together aside from the failure, and nuanced discussion courtesy of their respective communities. There's a lot of overlap, actually, between Jezebel's, which is part of the Gawker empire, and The AV Club's. Both are a haven for "hipsters" (at least from my aging perch), and neither are immune to race fail.
I think the problem with the former -- another meditation on HBO's much-blogged about series, Girls -- isn't that the show features four well-connected, privileged white women, it's that, as voiced by many commenters -- those experiences are held up as universal when they're not. This is part of what's missing in a lot of the reactionary articles defending the show.
As for the latter, Kjerstin Johnson from Bitch magazine was quick to point out that in trying to illustrate "hipster racism" (racism hiding behind irony), writer Lindy West ignored the work of POC who've been writing about the ways white people justify their racism (including under the guise of irony) for years.
That's not to say that neither article is totally without merit -- some thoughtful discussions have broken out among the comments -- but both could have benefited from a bit more clarity -- and self-awareness.
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