Blowhard, Esq. writes:
- Yesterday The Independent published an anonymous article entitled “White Men Should Never Hold Elected Positions In British Universities Again.” It appears they have taken it down, but someone at reddit helpfully preserved this charming bit lefty self-flagellation:
University is supposed to be amazing, a transformative experience which is informed by student unions across the country. Yet people don’t give a toss about their student unions, no one cares about the NUS, and activism is dying at all but a few hardcore universities. This generation of students has been pissed on by the government and fees, and privatisation, and all anyone seems to want to do is roll over and let it happen.
Do you know why this is? It’s because our universities and student unions are too similar to our government; they are too stunted by white men. White men might want to appropriate injustice as theirs, desperate for something to struggle against, but it’s a hobby they’ll pick up and drop as soon as the first comfortable finance job beckons them over.
We need to ban white men and their activism dilettantism from student unions. We need powerful women and minority ethnic people to bring their passion back to the heart of student politics. Being a student union president should no longer be a place for privileged whiteboys to swing their dicks around before graduating into a world that is in no way affected by what they claim to fight for.
More importantly, we obviously live in a world that looks favourably on white men. In order to bring about change in our racist and sexist society, it must start in our universities. If women and minority ethnic people were in positions of leadership across all universities in the country, we would have a diverse graduating class of future leaders in every industry.
“Oh but, it’s racist to ban someone on the basis of their skin colour, and sexist to ban them on their gender,” cry the assembly chorus of confused souls trying to turn the language of progress into a weapon to further entrench the establishment. It’s not. You’re at university, go and ask a humanities professor. Learn something.
White men have had the last several millennia in charge, and it’s been a s***show from start to finish. A new generation of powerful women and minority ethnic people is ready to lead and change. It is time for you to bow down.
- More hilarity out of the Emerald Isle. The UK National Union of Students has banned gay white men from “appropriating black female culture.” I’m sure black women have never appropriated any other culture.
- Finally, this fucking genius over at Pitchfork comments on “The Unbearable Whiteness of Indie” rock. This moron is upset that GOD SAVE THE GIRL, the directorial debut of Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, is “steeped in Whiteness”:
The film itself is an egregious mess that romanticizes a woman’s struggles with an eating disorder for the sake of Murdoch’s self-promotion. The optimistic, happy-go-lucky and painstakingly adorable aesthetic evidenced in every character he created is founded in Whiteness. Whiteness is beauty; Whiteness is what gives the character the ability to dream of fostering a career in music; Whiteness is what enables the audience to empathize with Eve’s character. A recurring filler in the film was a fictitious radio show where two men try to decipher what “real” indie is and every band mentioned is white, enforcing the film’s aspirational Whiteness. While Belle and Sebastian aren’t the only examples of perpetuating Whiteness through indie rock, this movie serves as a microcosmic view of what is wrought by racial exclusivity that is omnipresent in indie rock.
In indie rock, white is the norm. While indie rock and the DIY underground, historically, have been proud to disassociate themselves from popular culture, there is no divorcing a predominantly white scene from systemic ideals ingrained in white Western culture. That status quo creates a barrier in terms of both the sanctioned participation of artists of color and the amount of respect afforded them, all of which sets people of color up to forever be seen as interlopers and outsiders. Whiteness is the very ideal for which art is made in Western culture, be it the cinema of Wes Anderson or, say, the artists on Merge Records.
After complaining about microaggressions and the lack of female Indians in pop music, she concludes by saying:
It’s difficult not to be deterred and alienated by the overwhelming Whiteness of it all, especially when as a person of color, Western society flat out resists the witness of your life. However, it’s important to seize and act on precedents being set by the likes of Heems and M.I.A., paving a way that makes it easier for new artists of color to follow suit and make their mark. Whiteness is a mark of exclusivity that must be broken; to have masses of talent ignored in favor of a select few is not acceptable. Visibility of people of color in independent music is absolutely paramount for the genre to evolve and truly represent those cast away from the scene for too long.
Hmmm, yes, indubitably. Please tell me more about how Western society flat out resists the witness of POC.
Blowhard, Esq.
Callowman
Sherbrooke
Eddie Pensier
Enzo Nakamura
Epaminondas
Fabrizio del Wrongo
Fenster
Brundle Guy
Glynn Marshes
Paleo Retiree
Atypical Neurotic
Question Lady
Sax von Stroheim
Sir Barken Hyena
The Mistaken
Uncouth Reflections 
Murdoch’s response: “Fuck off, Pitchfork.”
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2015/03/26/stuart-murdoch-responds-article-racism-indie-rock-aw-fck-off
Seriously though, the author of the piece makes it seem that alllllll the other indie bands with POC in them mean diddly squat. So TV on the Radio and King Khan and the Shrines aren’t non-white enough to meet your standard? Or if we go by Sarah’s examples of MIA and Heems then why aren’t Jennelle Monae or Erykah Badu brought up? Why does Bat For Lashes get the stink eye because she leans more toward a brand of indie pop that is mostly white? And as was mentioned above I guess all those other hip hop artists who are mainly independent and were inspired by NWA et al (Run The Jewels, Death Grips, Shabazz Palaces, Earl Sweatshirt) don’t get to be included because they’re American?
This invasion of SJW into every fucking aspect of culture has to stop. Go back to supporting labor rights and the state not putting people in jail for smoking a joint.
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I agree there are lots of indie bands with POC in them, but I don’t think it’s necessary to even point them out. Let’s face it: the indie scene is overwhelmingly white, and so what? The hip-hop scene is overwhelmingly black, and so what? Both scenes have their racial outliers and both scenes have fans outside their majority ethnicity (hip hop in particular).
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Also, the hip hop groups you mention are just that, hip-hop. I wouldn’t classify them as indie, although sure, lots of primarily indie music fans listen to them, but that just means hip hop has lots of white fans too.
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Murdoch’s response: “Fuck off, Pitchfork.”
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2015/03/26/stuart-murdoch-responds-article-racism-indie-rock-aw-fck-off
Seriously though, the author of the piece makes it seem that alllllll the other indie bands with POC in them mean diddly squat. So TV on the Radio and King Khan and the Shrines aren’t non-white enough to meet your standard? Or if we go by Sarah’s examples of MIA and Heems then why aren’t Jennelle Monae or Erykah Badu brought up? Why does Bat For Lashes get the stink eye because she leans more toward a brand of indie pop that is mostly white? And as was mentioned above I guess all those other hip hop artists who are mainly independent and were inspired by NWA et al (Run The Jewels, Death Grips, Shabazz Palaces, Earl Sweatshirt) don’t get to be included because they’re American?
This invasion of SJW into every fucking aspect of culture has to stop. Go back to supporting labor rights and the state not putting people in jail for smoking a joint.
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The homely woman at Pitchfork is just miffed that her co-ethnics would rather drop dead than join a dorky, introverted scene like indie rock. They’re the audiences for Bollywood movies and the guests at a wedding who demand pure over-the-top spectacle and materialistic indulgence.
She’s transferring the shame she feels about her own race to what she sees as a superior race, although dopey indie rock is hardly the first thing I’d point to about Europeans being better than Indians.
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She’s also still pissed because she thought she’d score some kind of “exotic babe” points by being one of few Indian women in an overwhelmingly white scene, but remained invisible even to dorky white dudes due to being ugly.
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You’re like that guy at a party with whom you are enjoying a lively conversation with until suddenly he starts spouting off straight up racist or sexist shit and sucks the fun out of it.
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1. Yeah, white guys, look what a mess you made of running the Mughal Empire, Ming Dynasty and Zulu. If only they’d been run by POC they’d have been heaven on earth. And trust me white dudes, when a woman finally becomes Prime Minister of the UK she’ll be, like, so progressive.
2. God, what is it with gay guys having fun? Why can’t they be humourless dykes like us?
3. Indie music is so white. Thank Vishnu that Bollypop is so much more diverse. Also, what is it with white people wanting to make movies about white people?
And yet the world turns on…
P.S. I’ve just finished a Stephen Becker novel. Don’t know if you guys have read him, but if not you should. He was an old China hand who turned around and wrote a bunch of knowledgeable adult thriller-adventures set in the Far East, usually taking place around the first half of the 20th century. Most of them would have made great Old Hollywood films.
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The unbearable brown-ness of bhangra.
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A superior race? Oh come off it, give me a fucking break. Don’t forget that whites got this whole silly SJW shit rolling in the first place.
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When I read an article about the hip-hop scene being too black, then maybe I’ll give this Pitchfork article a read.
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