DISGRASIAN OF THE WEAK! Hipster Runoff
by Guest Contributor Jen, originally published at Disgrasian
From time to time, we use satire to talk about race issues. Often we do so because life is so unfunny, it’s a joke. Or because the only way to get people to think about uncomfortable things is not to beat down the gates but to distract them with some kind of Trojan Horse. Other times, it’s simply the most expedient way to spit out the metallic taste of bile and blood that ignorance leaves in our mouth.
This week, Hipster Runoff, a satirical blog about all things “alt” and “authentic” (“What is the most authentic body part 2 do blow off of?”) that reveres hipsterdom while simultaneously underscoring how it’s just as full of mindless followers as the mainstream, published a post called “Should I h8 AZNs?” Here are a few excerpts:
Sad about the economic crisis, and how AZNs have been smarter than us about saving ‘money’ and only spending what they have. I think America is beautiful. We’ve had a good run, but maybe we’re not as special as we thought we were. Kinda sad. I still feel ‘cooler’ than a lot of foreigners, and like smarter…
Is it cool to ‘be better’ towards AZNs who live in America, or are they ‘one of us’? Or should we construct some ‘internment camps’ in the middle of the USA where we force all AZNs to live and do manual labor, even if they are respected within society? Not trying 2 be radical, just know that we have 2 hold some1 accountable for our crisis, and it might ‘unite’ our country if we single out a group of people who are responsible. Kinda like when they had 2 find communist actors in Hollywood.
I don’t really know much about China, except that they are ‘commie reds’, violate a lot of human rights, and pollute a lot. Learned that from the newspaper…
Should I h8 azns and hold them responsible for the destruction of my country? Or should I move out of the USA and move to an authentic city like Paris/Beijing/Tokyo/Cairo?
There are several Hipster Runoff posts that begin similarly with a question–“Should I Vote?” or “Is it ALT 2 watch the Super Bowl?”–where the answer is patently obvious, and “Should I h8 AZNs?” was probably intended to fall into that category.
Unfortunately, “Should I h8 AZNs?” is not satire.0 It highlights a very real cultural anxiety and its attendant racist backlash without taking it to task in any substantive way. While some of the post’s defenders brand it as satire in the comments section, others take it for what it really is–license to be a dumbass:
lets kills all AZN males.
and all the AZN woman can clean are houses and get naked for uswhen the end comes the asians and jews will be left to rule mwuahah
think maybe we should make the ayzns and mexicans and non alt girls slaves again
funny… i love AZNs love em. but thats a problem too.
it’s called reverse racism.
I love the bcoz their azns. with their petite frames and slanty eyes! amazing…It’s a fettish.
even economic turmoil doesn’t stop me loving them.
A number of commenters on the post do protest that “Should I h8 AZNs?” crosses the line, but that’s precisely the problem. It doesn’t cross the line–the line into satire–it toes the line of reality. That China is taking over everything, and people are really fucking bitter about it. And it’s okay to turn our cultural anxieties about not being the Number One Superpower into outright xenophobia, and it’s acceptable to hate when you feel like somebody else is downsizing your dick.
If “Should I h8 AZNs?” had been satire, the answer to its central question would have been an obvious, resounding “no.” As it stands, the feeling you’re left with is far more murky and unclear. The post does nothing to dissuade the reader from saying “yes” to the question or from thinking that h8ing Asians is okay. The only thing that is clear to us after reading “Should I h8 AZNs?” is that these AZNs h8 Hipster Runoff.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Mammith wrote:
God I despise Hipster Runoff. Yet another piece of ‘lieronic’ Hipster racism.
Great post!
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 9:30 am ¶
CVT wrote:
I think – out of most of the so-called “satire” that gets called out in this site – this is the closest to achieving that. It’s not funny at all, and it somewhat pisses me off – but I can actually see what this one was trying to do.
It’s a bit different than those “satirical” pieces that have no apparent sarcasm embedded at all.
So this one is still a fail, but I can actually see how it’s failed “satire,” instead of just racist crap that is later “apologized for” in the name of – ‘it’s satire – can’t you take a joke?’
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 9:38 am ¶
emfole wrote:
This is just disgusting- “internment camps???” This is what happens when white privilege goes unchecked. This is what happens when we don’t take history and its lessons seriously. History will repeat.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 11:37 am ¶
Tracey wrote:
@CVT : yeah. I agree. But I also agree with the analysis which is scary. There are too many people who are starting to think like this (except for the the internment part..yet.. I hope). This doesn’t go quite far enough to be satire that a lot of people might get because it mimics a real internal conversation some people are having. I personally like a lot of the failed satire that is critiqued here, but I also know that a lot of people won’t find it to be satire.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 5:17 pm ¶
SayNay wrote:
@ Mammith “lieronic” good word…I’ll have to add that to my lexicon.
But on the whole what the…!!! I see the good old ’satire’ has found a new subject. How do people even begin to think that mentioning internment camps is light hearted and humorous. I’m sure at some point they will issue a half azz apology and go back to business as usual when the dust settles.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 5:44 pm ¶
Ejunco wrote:
Go on there website right now and theres a post called “YELLOW AZN DEATH MARCH MEME” so fucking ignorant.
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 7:16 pm ¶
Hilary wrote:
The idea of creating a scapegoat to boost white American morale is also beyond disturbing, especially since that recalls a lot of rhetoric towards the Middle East, as well East Asia.
But mostly all I can manage is a big ‘WTF?!’ I am truly speechless.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 7:19 pm ¶
Rchoudh wrote:
Having just exited a Washington Post article about new restrictions placed on companies receiving H1-B visas and the racist utterings spewed forth against South Asians in the comments section, I really don’t see the difference between the “real” venom spewed forth by readers of real news sites and this “satirical venom” spewed forth by Hipster Runoff. There is indeed alot of anti-Asian racist sentiment on the rise lately and failed “satires” such as these do nothing to show how ridiculous these racist sentiments are. It’s like these “satires” are almost meant as excuses for the hipster jokers to reveal their racist sentiments without accountability.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 7:29 pm ¶
Daniel wrote:
I used to (and still do) find some sense in security and confidence having sound knowledge towards these issues, such as understanding how economics really work, analyzing media articles, reading history and social topics, interacting with a lot of people…scholars, craftsmen, students, entrepenuers, etc. However, being a bookworm at times isn’t enough.
I have to say that American society is still one of the most progressive (IMPO, the leader) in terms of dealing with demographic issues…for a variety of reasons, and sometimes it’s not always out of pure benevolence. I really hope we can move past the need in finding scapegoats, but the bad sides of human nature can cloud our thinking.
I hope any readers can have a tad bit of faith in knowing that this type of sentiment does not reflect the attitudes of many people in the States. There’s a lot of Americans of many backgrounds who are capable of using reason and empathy to understand. Neither the media, cyberspace or all these “experts” truly give the entire picture of things. It doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem but have some hope and work hard to deal with it.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 9:47 pm ¶
Arabi wrote:
Ummm….Satire is not necessarily supposed to be funny or light-hearted.
I’d say that, given the exaggerated claims, the controversial piece is adopting an obviously mocking tone to parody the very thoughts that many people are having in their heads at this moment.
The authors criticism doesn’t make sense to me. Satire mainly confronts real, serious issues and ideologies by way of wit which is often subtle, so it makes since that it references “real” opinions held by those who would discriminate against Asians. If it didn’t it wouldn’t be satire. But it also makes sense that most people don’t “get” it.
Though, given that Satire is utilized for some concrete purpose, usually to change or challenge a particular viewpoint, we really don’t know whether it is a success or not. Sure, a lot of the dimwits didn’t get it but many others may have.
However, we really can never know another’s intentions, so to claim that this is an merely an opportunity for “hipsters” to make fun of Asians maybe unwarranted if it is true that this ezine is dedicated to Satire.
Posted 06 Apr 2009 at 9:53 pm ¶
ceecee wrote:
This is scary. -smh-
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 9:14 am ¶
mzk wrote:
yea, this definitely doesn’t cross the line into satire. actually, from reading a few other posts on the site, dude seems pretty serious in his fears and veiled hatred for asians. i guess maybe the author is just trying to be ironic, and push the envelope in the field of being politically incorrect in the name of comedy…but nothing on that blog, including this post is all that amusing…or well written
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 9:28 am ¶
Mariella wrote:
Well, I think that it is clear that it was meant to be satire – the internment camp thing is what pushed it so far beyond normalcy that I think it’s obvious that it’s not meant to be serious.
But this kind of thing is exactly why I can’t stand hipsters! They’re smart enough to see racist attitudes around them and realize that they’re wrong – hence making fun of the racists and making them out to be so ridiculously extreme (asking if we should just put AZNs in internment camps). But, they’re too blinded by their own privilege to actually come up with any meaningful analysis (god forbid they should actually make the effort to educate themselves so they can come up with smarter things to say) – so they just repeat racist clichés with their ironic detachment and congratulate themselves on how progressive they are.
This is the major split I personally see in whites who don’t want to be racist (but still seem incapable of checking their privilege). There are the “colourblind” “post-racial” ones who would rather die than admit they notice when someone’s not white. They have all kinds of unchecked racist attitudes, but they since they refuse to talk about race at all, they remain unchecked. Then there are the hipsters, who realize how ridiculous the whole “colourblind” thing is. But they’re so full of themselves that they refuse to actually learn from POCs about racial analysis and activism. With nothing intelligent to contribute, they resort to their “ironic” clichés. Then, when POCs get mad, they think “silly little POC, s/he can’t understand my lofty intellectual irony. s/he’s so stuck in the social mainstream that s/he can’t tell that i’m not really racist!”… actually they’re too stuck in their privilege to realize that they’re not the experts on what constitutes racism.
Meanwhile, people of colour like me are pretty close to losing our minds because it’s so simple… you would learn better if you would LISTEN TO US once in awhile, rather than positioning yourself as the expert on everything.
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 3:21 pm ¶
Robert Delgado wrote:
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/02/tao_lin_is_maybe_probably_not.html
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 8:52 pm ¶
Reiter wrote:
Reminds me of those secret posts where people confess to being scared of Chinese people, or being terrified of Japanese businessmen. This seems no different. Another hipster wallowing in his own little bubble of white privilege and inviting every other non-POC to join him in his self-congratulatory, ironic pity party, all the while proclaiming, “This isn’t racist, it’s sarcastic; you humorless POCs don’t understand me at all.” It’d be funny and sad if it weren’t for the fact that overt racists are actually taking the author’s views literally.
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 8:54 pm ¶
Who r these pasty pp wrote:
Satire. Should. Be. Done. By. People. Who. Know. The. Targeted. Demographic.
Posted 07 Apr 2009 at 8:56 pm ¶
LU the musician wrote:
I think it’s brilliant. The stuff about internment camps and the communists in Hollywood refer to ACTUAL HISTORICAL FACTS that we look back on with regret. Those were two instances where the American public, in search of a scapegoat, allowed their fears to overcome their ideals and principles. So that would mean that any current Anti-Asian sentiment in today’s time would fall in the same category. Is no one else picking up on this?
Posted 21 Apr 2009 at 2:37 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
completely agree with Mariella, you summed up their ‘post-racial’ (bullshit) attitude in this sentence:
“silly little POC, s/he can’t understand my lofty intellectual irony. s/he’s so stuck in the social mainstream that s/he can’t tell that i’m not really racist!”
Posted 24 Apr 2009 at 2:07 pm ¶