History You Had a Dream
posted by on January 15 at 13:39 PM
In a comment to my my earlier post about Amiri Baraka and MLK Day, a commenter writes:
what a wasted opportunity…the stranger’s readers are young and could use some updating on the civil rights movement. and what do you do on MLK day? make some kind of cynical, obscure statement about a white hipster.wow, you all are so cool aren’t you?
White Hipster? Amiri Baraka is black.
And let me set you straight:
For something that happened 40-plus years ago, the Civil Rights movement gets an odd amount of ink on Slog and in our paper. From me.
In honor of Stokely Carmichael.
Those are just some quick links off the top of my head that, like today’s post, evidently went way over your head.
Amiri Baraka a white hipster?!!? Wow...I mean, just wow. Amiri continues to toss those Molotov cocktails and I'm glad of it. I don't always agree with the man, but he makes me think. Perhaps if your commenter from the previous post had decided to heal his/her ignorance, Amiri would have made him/her think, but alas it's so much easier to wallow in the quick, cynical hipster, canned, and shallow retort than to resort to facts and thought.
the white hipster was you ....
It's tricky for alternative newspapers to get involved in discussions of race. But does that mean they shouldn't try? I don't think so.
In trouble's defense -- and, person, I don't think there's any way to read your comment that doesn't make Baraka the 'white hipster' -- it was a little ambiguous from your post, Mr. Feit.
You said Baraka "was a member of the white Beat movement" and then, later, "an orthodox Black Power Marxist"... so you could go away from this thinking that Baraka was a white guy.
Trouble's defense? Every other part of the slog entry (including comments) clue the reader that Baraka is probably black; if it matters so much, Trouble should go look it up. Instead,Trouble just took the lazy way, posting a snide remark rather than adding to the discussion.
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