fuckyeahfeminists:

by Thea Lim

Last week at Racialicious HQ, we were delighted to see the term “hipster racism”–coined by our very own Carmen Van Kerckhove in 2006*–suddenly enter mainstream parlance, thanks to Jezebel’s publication of Lindy West’s “A Guide to Hipster Racism.” In a flash, the words “hipster racism” papered themselves across Facebook and Twitter feeds across the continent (and maybe the world?).  Words are wonderful, and when more people have access to language that helps them name the racism of everyday life,  we’re happy.

There was only one glitch. While West linked to one Racialicious post (a short piece Carmen wrote in 2007 about white girls and gang signs) she never once name-checks Racialicious or Carmen…or any of our amazing pals and allies who have been writing about this stuff since the main target was Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Girls (i.e. a long time ago).

On the one hand, no one takes up social-justice work to see their name in lights and, at the end of the day, the point is just to get the message across, no matter who gives it the signal boost. On the other hand, we’re only human. It hurts when work that we, as a collective, have been jackhammering about for seven-plus years gets credited to someone else. (Seven years, y’all! Back to the dawn of skinny jeans! Before Facebook was open to the public, for cripes’ sake.)

And as our friends at Bitch pointed out, it is also  distressing, though not in the least surprising, that the words “hipster racism” are more palatable, resonant, and listenable when they come from the mouth of a white blogger.  It’s enough to make you get real low and start thinking terrible emo thoughts, like one white blogger is worth more than ten bloggers of colour.

And so! To keep the emo monster at bay and, as an ancient person who remembers all the way back to a long lost time when Racialicious was known as Mixed Media Watch, I decided to quietly slip out of retirement for a moment to revisit just a few of our landmark posts about hipster racism, so as to remind ourselves (and yes, to remind the internet) of all the brotherpucking hard work we have done, lo these many years.

We are proud to present, in chronological order, Racialicious’ Greatest Hits (Hipster Racism Edition)

Click the title to read the whole post (and awesome links to other posts!)

transqueery:

Recently, a well-meaning friend of mine disclosed my trans status to a friend of his, someone I hadn’t known previously. I don’t know that I ever would have found out that he had done so if his friend hadn’t slipped up and referred to me as “she” in front of a group of people.

strawberreli:

dmanmarx:

proteanbeing:

New rule: Everybody get’s to wear whatever the fuck they want to.

Seconded.

This kind of strikes a lot of fear into me. Mostly because growing up, my father would beat us if we pulled off our sister’s hijabs. It was stressed to the utmost that it was equivalent to pulling down her pants, and that we were never allowed to touch it, not even if they were wearing it at home and no one would see if we tugged it off.

Many Muslimahs I know have confided in me that they fear that people who discriminate against Muslims might harass them if they wear the hijab, to the point where they tug it off. I myself have this fear when I present feminine. It’s unsettling. 

This is the morning of reblogging shit I had not thought about.

I am not Muslim and honestly it never occurred to me that women who wear the hijab would be afraid of having it pulled off of them by someone who objects to their beliefs. Probably because I don’t think it would ever occur to me to violate another persons space and tear off their clothes. That’s just well, violating.

I have my own fears when interacting with people who object to me and my beliefs and I’m sorry that anyone has to have a legit fear of their own clothes being pulled off by another person.

So reblogging this for anyone else who might not have thought of this.