The Best Take Down of Hipster Racism You Will Ever See
I’ve watched and shared this video so many times that I figured I should blog about it. The poets are Kai Davis (left) and Safiya Washington (right) of the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement performing at last year’s Brave New Voices semi-finals.
The term “hipster racism” was coined by Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious and refers to using racist language “ironically”. But I would go a step further and say that the hipster lifestyle is quite racist in and off itself and Davis and Washington’s performance perfectly encapsulates why that is. As s.e. Smith explained back in 2009:
Hipsters are a driving force behind gentrification, driving out low income people and people of colour. They consistently co-opt and appropriate elements of other cultures, piecemeal, and often without any cultural sensitivity or respect. They regularly draw upon the work and legacy of people of colour, usually without crediting them, and most of their contact with people of colour comes in the form of the service personnel serving them their food, cleaning their wine bars, and picking their organic produce.
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This can be seen in the reaction to the video. In my experience, people either love or hate it and those who hate it are more often than not (surprise surprise!) white hipsters who complain that Davis and Washington’s performance is too angry, too aggressive. They’re basically demanding that people who are routinely insulted and oppressed by the world around them temper their criticisms to spare the feelings of the oppressor. Fuck that!
Restaurateur: Obama mural is here to stay
By Robert Stanton | February 19, 2013 | Updated: February 19, 2013 5:51pm
Marcus Davis is resolute. As many times as vandals paint over a mural of President Barack Obama, he will repair the damage over and over again.
“There is an endless supply of paint,” said Davis, 41, who opened The Breakfast Klub in 2001. “This mural is symbolic of the presidency of Barack Obama. He wakes up every day to obstacles and challenges far greater than a doggone mural being defaced. If he has the level of courage and type of character that causes him to continue to go on, I’ll be damned if I stop.”
Just days after Davis stopped a possible vandal from defacing a mural of President Obama, the restaurateur said he’s not about to let his guard down.
I thought this would be a good page to post this article:
“THE DISPLACEMENT TAX: AN UPDATE FROM GENTRIFICATION GROUND ZERO”
https://southseattleemerald.com/2018/11/26/the-displacement-tax-an-update-from-gentrification-ground-zero/
Transcript Piers Morgan -Wanda Sykes
MORGAN: When we come back, outrageous, outspoken and opinionated, that’s why I’ve invited her back. Actress and comedian Wanda Sykes. Welcome back to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANDA SYKES, COMEDIAN: Wait a minute. Isn’t reverse racism — isn’t that when a racist is nice to somebody else? Isn’t — that’s reverse racism. What you’re afraid of is called karma.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN: Wanda Sykes on her HBO comedy special talking about racism. It’s one of many tough topics she’s never afraid to tackle. Actress and comedian Wanda joins me now. Welcome to you. How are you?
SYKES: I’m doing great.
MORGAN: I love the new hairdo.
SYKES: Thank you.
MORGAN: Just wanted to throw that out there.
SYKES: Thank you. Yeah. I have people who fix me up. So I let them do their thing.
MORGAN: Fantastic. Now last time I spoke to you, we were discussing whether America was more or less racist because of Barack Obama becoming president. You said some interesting stuff about it. But what I wonder is when you watched him or heard about him playing golf with Tiger Woods, I was imagining the imagery of the best golfer in history and President Barack Obama, two black African-American men — there they are at the top of their game. It can’t be bad.
I mean, racism must have gotten better in America for this to be possible.
SYKES: Yeah, you look at that and you have to say yes, things have gotten better. Definitely. But you still have craziness out there. You still have people who are extremely racist, but luckily enough, they’re broke. You know. Really, you look at it — you know, they don’t have — even though they try in this election with the money and everything. But it’s more about greed as opposed to race, I think.
MORGAN: The most extraordinary story, I was going to ask you about, was this Michigan nurse, Tanya —
SYKES: Oh my God, yes.
MORGAN: — suing the hospital she worked at for 25 years, Hurley Medical Center, because a patient’s father asked that no African- American nurse take care of his baby, which is about as pure racism as you can possibly imagine. So it is still there, isn’t it?
SYKES: Totally. But I assume that those people probably don’t have a lot of money, you know, really. They would have had private nurses and everything, and wouldn’t have to go through this. On this issue, you have to blame the hospital. Because the hospital, they’re allowing this. Who does that? If that’s the case, when I was in a hospital, I wish I would have made that request. Not for no African-American nurses to take care of me, but I just wanted some women with big breasts. I would say only women with Double Ds could come take care of me. And if Cedar-Sinai would have granted my request, that would have been great.
MORGAN: You also said last time that you thought it was more difficult to be gay in America now still than to be black. You still think that?
SYKES: Yes. Yes.
MORGAN: Do you? Because I feel it’s moving very, very fast now, the gay issue.
SYKES: Well, we still can’t — there’s not equality across the board. There’s still — I believe probably over 30 states where you can be fired because you’re gay or lesbian or bisexual. You can be fired. We don’t have equal protection. We can’t marry. I mean —
MORGAN: Don’t you feel it’s moving quickly?
SYKES: I won’t say quickly. It’s moving. And we are very grateful that that’s happening. We’re very grateful that we have a president in the office who is trying to push that forward. But no. It’s still not — there’s still not equality.
And here’s the thing. OK, I should put it this way, with black, you see that I’m black and you can automatically go, eh, I don’t like her because she’s black. That’s even.
But being gay, when they see that you’re gay, then it’s — then they can really make a decision of, boom, this is what I don’t like. So that’s the thing. You know, when they see me, racists get confused. They don’t know which way to hate me. Oh, God, my head’s going to explode. She’s black and she’s a lesbian. There’s so many reasons why I hate her. Which one? Which one?
MORGAN: You should become a politician. Then we can hate you for all sorts of new reasons.
SYKES: Yes.
MORGAN: Let’s have a break, come back and talk about Oscars. Two types of Oscars, Pistorius — I want to get your take on that story, but of course the great event on Sunday here in Hollywood, involving trinkets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MORGAN: Back now with outspoken comedian Wanda Sykes. This Oscar Pistorius thing, do you believe him?
SYKES: Do I believe him?
MORGAN: Yeah. SYKES: I find it hard to believe that you think there is thieves in your bathroom. So they’re already in your bathroom, so — but you’re going to shoot through the door? What? Why? They’re already locked up in your bathroom. Just — it just is kind of hard to believe, especially —
MORGAN: It is also hard to believe that he cold bloodedly planned her killing, I think anyway.
SYKES: You never know, man. He’s probably real sensitive, you know. And maybe one day he looked and she was out there with his scoops, you know, picking up something, you know. Just you know you want to laugh at that. Go ahead.
MORGAN: I’m not going to laugh at that. Inappropriate.
SYKES: She was probably scratching her back with one of his scoops. Come on, you know that. She probably just —
MORGAN: I’m going to move you on to the other Oscar before I get into trouble here. The Oscars on Sunday, are you a fan of the Oscars or is it just a load of the whole theatrical drivel, do you think?
SYKES: If it is a good show, I love the Oscars. If the movies are great, it’s a good show.
MORGAN: The movies are quite good this year, I think. What was your favorite movie? I liked “Lincoln.”
SYKES: You know what’s so funny, I did. The first 20 minutes of “Lincoln” — you have to get past the first 20 minutes. The first 20 minutes, you feel like someone is reading you a book, like, oh, sweet God. Then it kicks off. I love “Django Unchained”.
MORGAN: “Argo ” was very good, I thought. “Silver Linings Playbook” was very good. Some good movies. What about Seth MacFarlane as host? I’m quite excited by the thought of him causing a lot of problems.
SYKES: Yes, I think he’s going to do a Ricky Gervais. I think he’s going to do it. So that’s going to be fun to watch.
MORGAN: Do you ever fancy hosting it?
SYKES: I don’t know.
MORGAN: Whoopi Goldberg did it. Ellen Degeneres — only two women have ever hosted it alone.
SYKES: It is me. I go off the rails at times.
MORGAN: That’s why I like you. That’s why I like you hosting the Oscars.
SYKES: Yeah, I would —
MORGAN: I hate it when it is all controlled. I like mayhem.
SYKES: I would drop some bombs, I’m pretty sure. Not F bombs. But I’m sure — yeah, because I hate hypocrisy, so I would just so run through it.
MORGAN: You aren’t currently dropping bombs all over America on your tour, from Dominican Republic to Las Vegas. For tour dates, go to WandaSykes.com, click on Wanda’s calendar. Sounds fun.
SYKES: Yes.
MORGAN: What is on your calendar? The dates?
SYKES: I have a lot of things going on. Like you said in the — I don’t know the dates exactly. They pretty much just tell me when way to head, go to the airport.
MORGAN: The one thing I wanted to ask you before we go, Clive Davis coming out as bisexual, the record tycoon. What is your immediate, very short reaction?
SYKES: First of all, 1:00 in the morning, there he is, this is a good time to say you’re bisexual, because, you know, 1:00 in the morning, everybody’s —
(CROSS TALK)
SYKES: Right, 1:00 in the morning, everybody is bisexual. It makes sense, you know? I got to tell — once, like, a girl can be bisexual, but I think once a guy is bisexual, I think most women will tell you, no, you’re gay.
MORGAN: Well, I’m happy for him whatever he is.
SYKES: Me too.
MORGAN: Wanda, nice to see you. See you again soon.
SYKES: Thanks.
MORGAN: Wanda Sykes. We’ll be right back.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1302/19/pmt.01.html
OUCH! BWA HA HA Brilliant!
“You have a tendency to treat animals better than humans.”
Hey Ladies, I’m re-posting this too, it’s not hatred, just looking side-eyed at the antics is how we feel, “sooo” well done.
Sup, JamalA. yes; these ladies ROCKED it. And thanks!
Reblogged this on Big Blue Dot Y'all and commented:
Get ready for a full-on sermon. Hipsters, you just got owned.
Owned but good…The “I don’t see color” shit always burns my buns. How are you not seeing color fools?