No Country for Social Justice Hipsters
Ever since the KONY 2012 thing went viral and set the internet ablaze (last night), folks have been dropping all types of thoughts on it. I’m not going to get into the depth of the arguments on their transparency and all that. Nor will I touch the “white savior” piece here. Those are for more informed folks to explore on other sites. I’m just here to talk about the people who’ve been talking about “Oh. That’s old news” about this AND any other issues like this that come up. It happened with the Troy Davis thing, and happens EVERY TIME something important happens.
You are not allowed to be a social justice hipster, talmbout “Oh you’re just finding out about *insert whatever issue here* now? I knew bout that conflict when it was underground.” Like this fool below:
LA DEE DAMB DA! Here’s a blue ribbon for you, now kindly shut the hell up. What’s the point? Letting folks know that you knew before everyone else does exactly what to help or fix the problem at hand? Yeah… nothing. What did you do with that knowledge? Not a gahtdamb thing. So what you NEED to do now is SHARRAP and let folks cook in their concern.
And these justice hipsters are also great for letting people know that since they weren’t aware of the issue before, why should they care now? Why would we NOT care about the death penalty or genocide or rape or any other terrible things that folks are doing to one another?
A lot of us live in a first world bubble, and world news is not our greatest concern, as selfish as that sounds. It’s true. We read TMZ more than BBC so oftentimes, we don’t know what’s going on elsewhere until it’s brought to our attention like this. But ignorance to problems doesn’t mean lack of empathy, and the assumption is insulting. It matters that we care. And we care RIGHT NOW.
Folks always gotta find ways to feel superior to others and currently, some are using this as that way. “Where were you 8 years ago when he…” WHERE WERE YOU TOO, MOFO??? What’s that gotta do with the price of tea in China?? Were you part of the army that tried to track him down? Did you help lawyers file Troy Davis’ appeal papers? NAWL so have a plethora of seats! \_ \_ \_ Give people more credit.
Knowing first means nothing if you didn’t act on your knowledge. But educating others on what you know can go a long way. Not just by making folks feel any less human because the information got to them later.
What I’m taking away from all of this is that I need to make a bigger effort to diversify my reading and get out this bubble I’m in. I should make BBC World one of my daily reads, instead of just Mashable. I need to pick up some more books and spend some days on the couch drinking in the words. And I should also pass on info I know via my Tumblr and Twitter and the rest.
In the meantime, I’ll do my part by kindly telling all social justice hipsters to go lay in the dark and be quiet. They need to go think of where to get their next huge glasses frames cuz I don’t have time. Go have an obscure seat. (-___-)
No County, Country or Continent for Social Justice Hipsters. Tell a friend to tell a friend.
Am I the only one irritated by these folks?
It is time to write that book. Come into The Book Academy and learn how to go from IDEA to INK.
20 Comments
Tell those fools Luvvie. Ignorant fools. Spread the word and help END the war or SHUT THE FUCK UP!
To the people who claim: “Ohmahgahh!! Everyone watched this 30 minute video and now they think theys a activist!!!”
First you’re upset because no one does anything, then you get upset when someone does something– just not how you wanted them to do it.
That was the point of the KONY 2012 video, to inspire people to do something. I’m trying to figure out now helping a good cause can ever be wrong. But I forgot, unless you find out about a problem in the most hipster way possible, it’s wrong.
All the energy you’re wasting on making your pointless discovery could go to helping the actual cause.
k.
Thanks.
-Drops mic and walks offstage-
I grew up in a third world country where thankfully we’ve never seen horror on a scale like this. Heck, our whole population is just about 1.5 million people. However, people come from abroad to help our poor and downtrodden – all the time. I have a friend who goes to Haiti on a regular basis, because she cares about them. Not everybody’s looking for fame. Since when was compassion out of fashion?
“Compassion out of fashion?”
U go girl! Excellently worded. These #Ignent fools these days don’t kno nuthin bout nuthin less it’s a trending topic.
And n a weak attempt 2 answer that question, I personally think this evolved round 9/11. No shade @ all 2wards the severity of that event, but I’m kinda thinkin when everyone started askin “where were u when it happened?”…thus a new outlook on world events was born. Idk…
ok, I have been seeing it all over my timeline, and it is irritating because people feel like hey why are you talking about it now blah blah blah… I am glad people care to make a difference now. Awareness has been brought to the issue. Great article.
“Social Justice Hipsters” can go hang out in Urban Outfitters and drink Kambucha (or is that played now too) with all the other hipsters no one wants to be like. And enough with the conspiracy theories too. Just because this one group wasn’t all it was supposedly cracked up to be doesn’t mean the man doesn’t exist, and it certainly doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to be stopped.
No you are not the only one. I have a much longer comment, but I’m sleepy, so will come back in the morn
I’m Kenyan and while yes I’ve known about it for as long as I can remember, I haven’t done anything about it.I could say I didn’t know how but that would be a lie. One of the people I follow @tmsruge is Ugandan and for the last 5 years has been working in the area.
I guess it’s a case of priorities, that there are other things on my radar.
I may not agree with some aspects of the video but I whole heartedly want more people to know and do something about what is going on around them.
We need to care. We need to get out of the comfort zone and just do more. We often underestimate the value of our giving back. IF anything this should be a starting point. Don’t stop asking questions and figure out how to make a difference.
The only reason I had already heard of this was because of a controversy by…*deep sigh*…Rush Limbaugh. Obama sent troops to Uganda a few month’s ago, and since Kony’s troops are called The Lord’s Resistance Army, Rush thought it was a Christian group and Obama’s Muslim….you know where this is going.
This is awful, what’s going on in Syria is awful, and unfortunately, the charities that claim to help seem to be the second coming of Yele. I’ll keep them in my prayers until I can find a REAL charity doing work there
Of course finding out about something late doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care about it. But. There is some sense in pointing out that this isn’t a new issue: mainly because understanding the fact that there’s a two-decade history to the LRA is helpful in understanding the whole issue – there’s context and complexity to this. ‘Awareness’ in itself doesn’t solve anything and, at worst, leads to bad advocacy. ‘Invisible Children’ really really aren’t be best source to understand the LRA. Here’s a useful overview (with plenty of links) that also highlights that Kony isn’t, in fact, in Uganda anymore, hasn’t been for a while:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
@KateBomz posted lots of useful links on her Facebook page that give you plenty of background reading.
And/or pick up Jane Bussmann’s ‘Worst Date Ever’. It’s hysterically funny (yes, really) – and at the same time, one of the best books about Northern Uganda that came out recently.
You forgot about the “why yall tryin to help the people in Africa when people in the U.S. die everyday?!?” folks. I always have to sit back and laugh when light is shed on social justices issues because the dynamics on twitter are absolutely HILAR!
But this post was right on time! I went on a twitter rant about this earlier today, I’ll definitely be sharing this tomorrow for my followers to read.
Yes!! I love it! I get “Your cause doesn’t matter compared to people dying in Africa,” too. Like they’re doing anything about it.
campaign 2012 al la political a la americans get involved and the administration looks like heros… in an election year.. im jus sayn.. (beats drums love jones style)
Here’s a great summary of Jane’s book – by Jane:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-bussmann/the-war-that-isnt-what-it_b_541696.html
And here are Urban Legend Kampala from Uganda – some of the funniest guys in town:
https://www.facebook.com/urbanlegendkampala
Andrea said it best. Kony isn’t even in Uganda anymore. His war there ended years ago. All this is doing is giving (the completely shady) Invisible Children more money. An organization that supports the UPDF who is equally as culpable in terms of child soldiers, looting, killing, etc.
ALL THIS HAS DONE is show two things. One: social media spreads news like wildfire. Two: It forces people to check their facts before spreading viral stuff lest you not look like a fool for doing it.
Or should we go back to changing our Facebook profile pics to cartoons to ‘raise awareness of child abuse.’ Yeah, it did wonders. This will be soon forgotten. Next.
[…] world outside our lives. One of my favorite bloggers, Luvvie Ajayi, pointed out in her blog post, No Country For Social Justice Hipsters, she says, We read TMZ more than BBC so oftentimes, we don’t know what’s going on elsewhere […]
Luvvie my second degree was conflict studies so this type of attitude to world issues and conflict is not surprising. I’ll tell you after my 3 years of study I left school disheartened and jaded frankly. Its because for every issue we study and critique not a single scholar, academic or world leader could offer up a plausible solution. Every issue where there was a solution proposed (rarely) it was slammed and torn to shreds by academia. This #Kony2012 turned my small little academic circle and magnified it. This will not be the last time trust me.
Girrrrrrl. I ranted about this around the time of Troy Davis’ execution and it always rears its ugly head when something major happens.
To those who always ask me, “Where were you when this BEEN going on??” I always retort, “Well… where were YOU to inform me?” I mean, since they BEEN KNEW and everything.
They need to have ALL of the holier-than-thou seats.
Not sure I ever heard of a social justice hipsters before. For the most part a hipster is a fashion statement. Isn’t it?
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