When I lasted visited NY back in 2012, I met with Speranza and Urban Infidel in Hipster Central: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The observation I made and one they both concurred with was that Obama is a creation of the Hipster world, not Black America. With the exception of his skin tone (outside the US he would not be considered Black), Obama has nothing in common with most Black Americans. His world, is that of the Hipsters and when he first declared his run for the Presidency in 2007, it was the Hipsters, not Blacks who fueled Obama’s rise.
President Obama has always been skilled at sending out very precise, targeted signals, whether it’s to mainstream swing voters or to his liberal base. But the group Obama works hardest at signaling to is the young, Millennial hipsters who were so vital to his 2008 victory over Hillary Clinton.
As a substantive matter, Obama’s presidency has been terrible for these people. High unemployment numbers for recent graduates. No bending of the curve on college tuition prices. An entitlement system that gets less solvent by the day. And a new healthcare regime that’s an explicit transfer of wealth from younger, healthier workers to older folks and the unemployed.
Yet Obama has made sure to signal that, despite everything, he’s really on their side. We see these signals in the big show he makes each year of filling out his NCAA bracket. (It’s not like there’s a war on or anything.) We see it in his choice of bffs. And above all, we see it in his TV habits, where Obama goes out of his way to let it be known that he’s a huge fan of HBO and Millennial darling shows such as Game of Thrones and True Detective.
Barack Obama is the first Hipster President and is a very powerful symbol to these people. He is considered one of their own and it is this demographic, not Blacks who have the most emotional attachment to this man.
Too many on the Right especially the Conservative element underestimate the Hipsters.
Tags: Brooklyn, the Hipster Movement, Williamsburg
