Random Notes on Vampire Weekend

I’ve been keeping up with last week’s internet back-and-forth concerning Jessica Hopper’s (apparently) incendiary write-up on Vampire Weekend, and for the most part, it’s been interesting. Nitsuh Abebe’s second response (the first being far more impulsive) is the best counter-argument you’ll find to Hopper’s essay — which is, essentially, a commentary on class, race, and cultural appropriation — but I don’t think you’ll find anyone who believes this is the kind of sociological conflict that can be resolved by music journalists. Which is why I won’t bother getting involved. There are, however, a few persistent points I needed to jot down:

• This conversation is fascinating because it is the polar opposite of the Jay-Z/Esquire debacle from last month in which Jay-Z’s cultural “blackness” was defined by his actual skin color, how little his demeanor mirrored Barack Obama’s, and whether or not he liked to curse. (He does.) In this case, however, “whiteness” is defined by education, family legacy, and whether or not Ezra Koenig’s admiration for Ralph Lauren comes from its position as a class signifier or, as he tells Rolling Stone this month, from the story of Ralph Lifshitz — the son of a Russian-immigrant house painter done good. No one, as far I’ve read, has thought to give him the third, most likely option: Koenig might just like how Polo shirts look.
• Aziz Ansari had an awesome joke in his recent special for Comedy Central. He talked about going to an R. Kelly show with a friend, and the friend turned around and said, “We’re the only white people at this show!” Aziz Ansari is, of course, not white. But some well-intentioned white folks have this weird tendency to speak to people of color as if we have attained some sort of honorary whiteness — as if we’ve been awarded with some sort of post-racial badge. “I know you’re not,” I’ve been told, “but, you know. You’re basically white.” I won’t go into the myriad of reasons why this is completely offensive, but I certainly feel for Rostan Batmanglij, who — despite his Persian background — has been forced to submit his sociocultural identity for amateur scrutiny.
• Absent from this conversation has been the recent disclosure of Batmanglij’s sexuality. Not that he needs to prove he isn’t on either side of the white heterosexist power structure to anyone, but let’s be serious: Being a gay Iranian-American is certainly going to afford one less privilege in this country than, say, that of either of the dudes in MGMT. Batmanglij is, in fact, less privileged than the overwhelming majority of writers who will criticize him this year.