Black...Hipsters? Please Explain!
Black. Hipsters. Blipsters. Is your brain leaking out of your ears, socioculturally speaking, at the very idea? Who are they? Why are they? Fortunately there's a new article that tries—and fails—to provide answers:
Hipsters. They're everywhere. You've seen them on skateboards, in the mall and at the club. You've seen them shrugging dismissively in Oakland, Calif., Willamsburg, Brooklyn and Austin, Tx. And, suddenly, in Barack Obama's Washington, too.
Do you get a good sense of how this article is going to go, now?
Hector is black. And these days, if you spend enough time in Union Square in New York City, Gallery Place in Washington or even Brick Lane in London, you know that there are thousands more kids just like him-black, white and brown. What gives?
Is there a real question here? Have we actually established a premise? No? Okay I didn't think so either. Just checking.
So just what is a black hipster-a "blipster" or "alt-black"? Like many recent cultural trends, this one straddles race, politics, fashion and art. For the purposes of discussion, we'll stick with men (though I have seen some Flock of Seagulls-looking black females out and about of late).
Could this article be categorized as "performance art?" In this blipster-ridden world, why not? Let's fast forward to the PROVOCATIVE part:
But, as with any budding social scene, it can be hard to tell who's in and who's out.
Asher Roth, a white rapper who favors a preppy look, became a YouTube sensation with his hit "I Love College." Does he count?
